Shostakovich Complete Songs - The Last Years Volume 2 - Delos: DE3307 - CD or download

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Here are two CDs dedicated to some of the finest and most under-recorded song repertoire of the 20th century. Yury Serov is the presiding spirit; his sharply characterised piano playing radiating... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: DE3307
Label: Delos
Length: 69 minutes

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Shostakovich: Preface to the Complete Edition of my Works and a Brief Reflection apropos of This Preface, Op. 123

Work length2:57

$1.00

$1.30

Fyodor Kuznetsov, Yuri Serov

Shostakovich: Five Romances on words from Krokodil magazine, Op. 121

Work length9:27

$5.00

$6.50

Fyodor Kuznetsov, Yuri Serov

No. 1, Autographic testimony

Track length3:36

$1.00

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No. 2, A dream difficult to realise

Track length1:16

$1.00

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No. 3, Discretion

Track length1:29

$1.00

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No. 4, Irinka and the shepherd

Track length1:22

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No. 5, Exaggerated pleasure

Track length1:44

$1.00

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Shostakovich: Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127

Work length25:29

$7.00

$9.10

Victoria Evtodieva, Lidia Kovalenko, Irina Molokina, Yuri Serov

No. 1, Ophelia's Song

Track length3:13

$1.00

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No. 2, Gamayun, Bird of Prophecy

Track length3:46

$1.00

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No. 3, We were Together

Track length2:58

$1.00

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No. 4, The Town Sleeps

Track length3:13

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No. 5, The Storm

Track length2:19

$1.00

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No. 6, Secret Signs

Track length5:01

$1.00

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No. 7, Music

Track length4:59

$1.00

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Shostakovich: Six Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva, Op. 143 (for contralto and piano)

Work length19:24

$6.00

$7.80

Lyubov Sokolova, Yuri Serov

No. 1, My Verses

Track length2:58

$1.00

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No. 2, Whence All This Tenderness?

Track length3:24

$1.00

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No. 3, Dialogue between Hamlet and His Conscience

Track length2:55

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No. 4, The Poet and the Czar

Track length1:38

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No. 5, No, the Drum Did Beat

Track length2:56

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No. 6, To Anna Akhmatova

Track length5:33

$1.00

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Shostakovich: Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin, Op. 146

Work length12:12

$4.00

$5.20

Fyodor Kuznetsov, Yuri Serov

No. 1, The love of Capitaine Lebiadkine

Track length4:15

$1.00

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No. 2, The Cockroach

Track length3:48

$1.00

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No. 3, The ball for the benefit of Governesses

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, A radiant personality

Track length2:02

$1.00

$1.30

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

Here are two CDs dedicated to some of the finest and most under-recorded song repertoire of the 20th century. Yury Serov is the presiding spirit; his sharply characterised piano playing radiating musical and cultural understanding, and his singers are first-rate.
The first volume is dedicated to the 1950s and contains several first recordings; few, if any, of the songs have ever appeared on CD before.
Much of his music from this time is marked by various nuances of cheerfulness (tentative, determined, over-stated, but never as brattish as in his first maturity). Often these seem rather to belie his true nature. Indeed, only the four Pushkin Monologues, with their topics of suffering, sorrow, imprisonment and resistance, are easily recognisable as the voice of Shostakovich, the Chronicler and Conscience of his Times. Fyodor Kuznetsov is slightly unsteady of voice here, but he still manages to convey a quality of wise, noble weariness that rings absolutely true.
It's to the enormous credit of all four singers that most of the remaining songs come across not as mere sops to authority but as genuine attempts to take on new artistic challenges.
Was it still possible to do something worthwhile with the homespun, soft-centred verses of Yevgeny Dolmatovsky? Many of Shostakovich's countrymen certainly thought he had done so, at least in respect of 'The Homeland is Listening' (first of the Op 86 Songs), since this was taken up as a signature tune for All-Union Radio and was actually sung by Yuri Gagarin during the first manned space-flight. Seemingly looking back to the tradition of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov, Shostakovich's two Lermontov Romances are gorgeously atmospheric and tender. By contrast his earthier Greek and Spanish Songs reflect his long-standing interest in poetry from other national traditions. Was his heart in them? Again you wouldn't find it hard to think so after hearing these fine performances.
Volume 2 gathers together the cycles from the last decade of Shostakovich's life, with the exception of his massive Suite on Verses byMichelangelo. While this repertoire isn't quite so rare as that on Volume 1, the performances are just as fine. In the Blok cycle – surely the finest songs on the disc – Evtodieva may not be the last word in subtlety, but she's still far preferable to the crude hectoring of Natalia Gerasimova on Chant du Monde. Given that the Four Verses ofCaptain Lebyadkin are otherwise unavailable, and the extraordinarily elusive Six Marina TsvetayevaPoems can currently be obtained only in the composer's orchestrated version, this disc is again pretty well self-recommending.
Altogether this enterprise is a winner. The recording quality is good, though there's a slight 'pinginess' to the piano sound.

Shostakovich Complete Songs - The Last Years Volume 2

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