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arrangements, Rutter’s ‘When the Saints’ and Ildar Abdrazakov—Power Players some of the others, it seems the group is bent Rachmaninoff, Glinka, Borodin, Moussorgsky, on becoming the Mormon Tabernacle Cham- Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Prokofieff, Rimsky-Kor- ber Choir. Things get a little “lushy-gushy” sakoff when that starts to happen. So let me put my Kaunas City Symphony/ Constantine Orbelian two cents in as the group contemplates its next Delos 3456—67 minutes release. Your Mendelssohn is gorgeous. Why Oddly enough, the Russian bass Ildar Abdraza- not give us more? How about Brahms (sacred kov has made his career by singing Italian and or secular), or some Bruckner motets that French roles. His Met debut was as Masetto in would be right in your wheelhouse? Why not Don Giovanni in 2004, followed fairly soon by show us what you can do in the classical main- Escamillo in Carmen. He didn’t take on a Russ- stream, in short, and leave the spiritualized ian role until 2012 (Dosifei in Khovanshchina), cotton candy for your colleagues in Temple and in this current Met season he tackles a sec- Square? ond one, Prince Igor. The Delos CD has been GREENFIELD intentionally released to coincide with the event. The Earth and I The beauty of the voice, singing in its native LAITMAN: The Sun Went Down; The Sky is Low; language, is immediately and persistently strik- The Wind; PLUDE: October; CHATMAN: Autumn ing. The timbre is just a bit on the light side—no Violets; Voice of the Rain; On the Beach at Night sepulchral Slavic low notes here—but the bass Alone; DINERSTEIN: An Old Silent Pond; BAR- resonance is genuine and doesn’t disappear BER: To Be Sung on the Water; Heaven-Haven; even in the softest phrases. I enjoyed almost MECHEM: Loveliest of Trees; FINNEY: See How everything, but must particularly mention the Arched Earth; EFFINGER: 4 Pastorales; LAU- Abdrazakov’s nimble enunciation in Farlaff’s RIDSEN: Sure On This Shining Night; McCUL- tongue-twisting Rondo from Ruslan and Lud- LOUGH: The Eye Begins to See mila and the lovely, expansive conclusion to Amy Broadbent, s; Shauna Kreidler Michels, mz; King Rene’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Steven Combs, bar; Mark Vogel, p; Noelle Drewes, There’s a world of pain and sadness in ob; Kacy Clopton, vc; Washington Master Susanin’s aria from Life for the Tsar, so it’s all Chorale/ Thomas Colohan the more impressive to hear the steel in the Albany 1454—67 minutes voice when Abdrazakov turns into Kutuzov Founded just a couple of years ago, the Wash- from War and Peace. Igor’s ‘No Sleep, no ington Master Chorale already sports a lush, Repose’ is sung as well as you’ll ever hear it. The beautiful sound that it knows how to use in only disappointment is the Coronation Scene lush, beautiful choral fare. That’s pretty much from Boris, because the chorus sounds wan and the story of this anthology; just about every- flabby. Otherwise, Orbelian is a strong conduc- thing on the program dovetails with that inter- tor, and the orchestral playing, if not deluxe, is pretive priority. Lori Laitman, Stephen Chat- at least adequate. Transliterated texts and trans- man, Kirke Mechem, Ross Lee Finney, Cecil lations are supplied, along with good notes. Effinger, and Morten Lauridsen have crafted LUCANO lush, lyrical music; and the Master Chorale is on hand to deliver it in lush, lyrical fashion. Dinara Alieva: Pace, mio Dio Once in a while a frog kicks up a fuss by jump- Verdi, Puccini, Cilea, Catalani, Leoncavallo ing into water (Norman Dinerstein’s ‘Old Czech National Symphony/ Marcello Rota Silent Pond’); or a wave of self-scrutiny causes Delos 3462—62 minutes a ruckus (when Donald McCullough’s ‘Eye In S/O 2013 I reviewed Alieva’s recital of Russ- Begins to See’). But most of the way, the music ian songs and arias. I thought the voice was is warm and calming, with the singers creating sometimes warm and beautiful, sometimes lovely sounds to convey all that inherent lyri- pinched and strident. Now the soprano tackles cism. more demanding fare, also with mixed results. The recorded sound is warm and a bit She has the style down pat: the portamentos, smudgy, which aids and abets those lyrical ele- the little catches in the voice, are persuasively ments. It doesn’t help diction, though, which Italian, but she misses some of the easy con- is the one technical element the group really versational manner that comes naturally to a needs to work on. They’re light on their words, native singer. She swallows a few syllables here which mitigates the force of the wonderful and there, and the tone is can be tight and poetry chosen by the composers. You’ll need pinched, especially when you want it to soar the texts, and Albany supplies them in the freely in the upper reaches of the Puccini arias. booklet. Best are the spinto numbers, like ‘Ebben? GREENFIELD Ne Andro’ from La Wally and ‘Io Son L’umile American Record Guide 235