C ASSETTE I NFORMATION A BOUT THE M USIC A NTON C HEKHOV Cassette 1, Side 1 . (46:08) Cassette 1, Side 2 . (31:32) The music on this recording was taken from the NAXOS and MARCO POLO catalogs RUBINSTEIN 24 MUSICAL PORTRAITS 8.223846 Oh! The Public Children Joseph Banowetz, piano The Chorus Girl Misery In The Ravine The Trousseau Fat and Thin CIURLIONIS PIANO WORKS 8.223549 & Other Short Stories Mûza Rubackyté, piano 3 CASSETTES A Story Without a Title Total Time on Cassette 1: 1:17:40 Oh! The Public · The Chorus Girl TCHAIKOVSKY ALBUM FOR THE YOUNG 8.550885 CLASSIC Cassette 2, Side 1 . (44:04) Cassette 2, Side 2 . (22:00) Idil Biret, piano FICTION The Trousseau · A Story Without a Title UNABRIDGED Children · Misery · Fat and Thin · The Beggar The Beggar In The Ravine - I BALAKIREV RUSSIA 8.550793 Hush! II - The elder so Anisim came home Russian State SO, Igor Golovschin Hush! · The Orator · An Actor’s End The Orator very rarely Music programming by Nicolas Soames R EAD BY K ENNETH B RANAGH An Actor’s End III - In the village Shikalovo K ENNETH B RANAGH lived two dressmakers Kenneth Branagh, a leading figure in film, television and Total Time on Cassette 2: 1:06:04 on stage, is equally at home with classic and contemporary Cassette 3, Side 1 . (37:23) Cassette 3, Side 2 . (34:32) subjects. However, as director and adaptor, he has made a particular contribution to Shakespearean performance with In The Ravine (cont) In the Ravine (cont) his films such as Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Hamlet III - The day of the wedding arrived VI - News had come long before and Love’s Labour’s Lost. His productions of Shakespeare in III - When they returned from the church VII - Old Tsybukin went to the town the theater have included: Henry V, Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Royal Shakespeare Company), Romeo and Juliet (Lyric), As You IV - Five days had passed VIII - Nikifor was taken to the Like It, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing (Renaissance), A Midsummer V - On Friday the 8th of July district hospital Night’s Dream and King Lear (World Tour), which he also directed, and V - By now the sun had set VIII - Vavila got into the cart Coriolanus (co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre). He has also IX - At the present time played Iago in Oliver Parker’s film Othello. Among his other films are: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Peter’s Friends and Theory of Flight. He has won Total Time on Cassette 3: 1:11:55 numerous awards for his work on stage, film and television as actor and Total Time on Cassettes 1-3: 3:35:39 director. To receive a complete catalog of our titles now available on both Cassette and CD, please call: 1(877) NAXOS CD • Fax: (888) 771-9520 www.naxos.com 416 Mary Lindsay Polk Drive, Suite 509 • Franklin, Tennessee 37067 Phone: (615) 771-9393 • Fax: (615) 771-6747 In Canada please call: (416) 491-2600 IN THE RAVINE and Other Short Stories • ISBN 9-62634-761-9 / NA326114 P 2002 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. © 2002 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. Made in the U.S.A. Cover picture: Old Ladoga 1969 by Andrei Bliok, courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library DIGITAL CLASSIC LITERATURE WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. UNAUTHORIZED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, BROADCASTING AND COPYING OF THIS CASSETTE PROHIBITED. NA326114 A NTON C HEKHOV which form the real story. At first reading, or hearing, they can seem even Knowing the dynamics of a theater company so well, Chekhov set out to pallid. But gradually the depth of emotion, of intent, emerges from even the have fun, too, with An Actor’s End. Fun, with a dying man?… The underlying lightest of brushstrokes. plot is so very Russian – the need for a return to the roots, to Vyazma, to die. In The Ravine This is evident in each of the stories here. Oh! The Public is a typical But the color of the picture comes also from the characters making their exits & Other Short Stories Chekhovian comedy, presenting the flustered confusion of the guard who, ini- and entrances, dealing each in their own way with the situation. Here is the comic actor Sigaev, here is the jejune premier Brama-Glinsky, here is the Oh! The Public • The Chorus Girl • The Trousseau tially, can rely on his position of authority and do his job in his uniform – a manager Zhukov, the tragic actor Adabashev, the hairdresser Yevlampy. A Story Without a Title • Children • Misery • Fat and Thin contemporary figure we can recognize even now! But gradually he is under- The Beggar • Hush! • The Orator • An Actor’s End mined. And does his tormentor really have a ticket? The Orator, too, is a brief And finally, In The Ravine: In form this is more a novella than a short story, comedy, which also has something to say about the funeral process, while A yet not in content. Here, in Ukleeva, in the ravine, is an enclosed society with Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, grandson of a serf, was born into a Russia of Story Without a Title pricks religious pomposity. its own cycles of power, submission, blackmail, abuse, and profound Russian tumult in 1860. In 1861 the system of serfs was abolished, although serfdom In The Chorus Girl, the sympathies of the reader/listener rock back and sadness. Most people coming into contact with the Tsybukin family are affect- echoed through the social order for succeeding decades. He grew up in forth between the plight of the wife and the plight of the girl, showing so ed by it, some deeply, some only in passing. Grigory Petrovitch Tsybukin Taganrog on the Sea of Asov, but his family moved to Moscow when his clearly the complexities of the common triangle. rules, for a while, but he cannot remain untouched by the shrewdness and father’s business failed. There, Chekhov studied medicine, which he was to ruthlessness of Aksinya, his daughter-in-law, the gentleness of Varvara, his So many of these stories offer vivid glimpses of Russian life in the closing practice all his life. young wife, or his desperate pride in his wayward son Anisim. Into this family part of the 19th century. The sad, unfulfilled lives lamented by Chekhov seen In his student years he earned money by writing, establishing a reputation comes the simple Lipa, who can only talk on real terms with the carpenter, no more clearly than in The Trousseau, with its picture of hopeless, forlorn initially for humorous short stories, then far more serious observations of and who can, perhaps, understand the tragedy that befalls her son Nikifor; existence. Russian life. And finally came the great plays, including The Seagull (1896), even more tragically, she comes to accept it. It is the way of the world, Uncle Vanya (1899), The Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard – his By contrast, Children is a bright evocation of a group of youngsters having Chekhov seems to say. fun while the grown-ups are away. With remarkable economy, Chekhov shows last great play, in 1904, the year of his death from pulmonary tuberculosis. At the age of 26, Chekhov wrote to his brother, Alexander: what an invisible but sharp observer in the room would have seen during the The plays remain the works with which he is most clearly identified. The game. The individual nature of each child emerges in just a few lines, through “When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, short stories, often gentle in their character, faintly elusive in their purpose, their response to the game, to the others, to the lateness. arranging them so that the reader will see an image in his mind after he rely on the portrayal of seemingly simple situations rather than masculine plots closes his eyes. For instance: you will capture the truth of a moonlit night if And, as we all remember, such evenings are not entirely fun, for interwov- with a strong conclusion. For a generation engaged by Maupassant (1850- you’ll write that a gleam like starlight shone from the pieces of a broken en relationships are as strong at child level as later on; some individuals are 1893), with his overtly exciting storylines, Chekhov presented a totally differ- bottle, and then the dark, plump shadow of a dog or wolf appeared. You caring, others selfish, ambitious, or confused. ent approach. will bring life to nature only if you don’t shrink from similes that liken its He wrote: Chekhov wrote about the people he met and observed. The cab driver in activities to those of humankind. Misery is desperate to communicate his tragedy, but those he meets – his “All I wanted was to say honestly to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are fares – are either anxious to avoid involving themselves or are oblivious to it. see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing is that people essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your With whom can he share his grief? The answer is the real tragedy. On the should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another hero’s state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to por- other extreme is the journalist in Hush!, living a fantasy of importance as he and better life for themselves.” tray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your scribbles away.