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ID: MELCD1002270
CDs: 50
Type: CD
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Collection: Piano Concerto
Subcollection: Piano
For the 100th anniversary of Sviatoslav Richter, Firma Melodiya presents its
arguably biggest project in its semicentennial history.
The name of Sviatoslav Richter is inscribed in gold in the history of music.
He was not just “more than a pianist,” he was even more than a musician. An owner
of composing, conducting, artistic, directing and acting gifts, a connoisseur of literature,
arts and philosophy, with a will of iron he made all his gifts serve the art of
pianism. An “artist of planetary scale,” as of the critics put it, Richter was like that in
everything - in his unbounded repertoire that he never stopped replenishing until
his last years, in his priestly frenzy of hours-long rehearsals, in the geography and
number of performances, - over 3 500 concerts in 770 places of the world for 55
years of his musical career! (“He was somewhat fathomless, Richter,” said one of his
famous colleagues). However, after he conquered the world (almost literally), he remained
indifferent to ovation and eulogies of the press, painfully experienced each
of the “defects” he noticed in his performance, and at the end of his way confessed
before the journalist Bruno Monsaingeon: “I don’t like myself.”
Of course we inherited numerous recordings from Sviatoslav Richter, live
and studio ones (although he preferred the former to the latter). Hundreds of records
and CDs have been released on domestic and foreign labels (the first of them,
gramophone ones, appeared in the 1940’s while some others became available as
late as in this century). However, even the existing body of recordings captures
neither his complete repertoire nor the entire essence of Richter’s
pieces could sound differently over the years, or even over a day!
And now, Firma Melodiya that recently marked its 50th birthday makes a
unique present for both sophisticated experts and a broad circle of music lovers -
a 50-CD set of Sviatoslav Richter’s concert recordings!
It has to be understood that this collection is far from the complete phonographic
legacy of the great musician. Nevertheless, the set includes plenty of
exclusive, previously unreleased recordings that will make the hearts of even
most erudite connoisseurs and collectors rejoice.
Most of the featured recordings are broadcasts from the concerts played in
Moscow in 1962 to 1983. However, the exceptions are of special interest. These are:
• one of the first Sviatoslav Richter’s extant concert programmes -
Schubert’s last sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1949);
• recording of the concert with Nina Dorliak in Bucharest, in 1958;
• recordings of “home” rehearsals with Nina Dorliak.
Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus, on which he plays a “modest” piano
part in an orchestra, is evidence of Richter’s extremely broad musical interests, or
the recordings of J.S. Bach’s ensemble concertos together with students of the
Moscow Conservatory.
Perhaps the listeners will find a number of “repetitive” tracks surprising.
Richter played (and recorded) many works time and again. Some of them allow us
to track the evolution of the pianist’s art, testify to his constant creative search
and dissatisfaction with himself (the interpretations of Berg’s concertos with different
performers, different versions of Schubert’s Sonata No. 6, Beethoven’s Third
Concerto and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at an interval of ten and twenty
years, respectively). Some other recordings were played in a shorter stretch of
time (Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2), or in succession - from
the mid 1970’s. Considering the growing interest of the public, Richter frequently,
fully or partly, repeated his programmes. So, at an interval of one day he played
Mozart’s Concerto No. 18 and Rachmaninoff’s Etudes-tableaux. In those unique
phonographic documents, a keen ear will detect barely perceptible “atmospheric”
changes that captured an inner aura of a certain concert as each of them was a new
test for the pianist in terms uncompromising strictness to himself, a new step on
the way to Absolute Music.
Berg:
Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments
Brahms:
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
Rhapsody in G minor, Op. 79 No. 2
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Britten:
Piano Concerto, Op. 13
Debussy:
Préludes - Book 2 (12, complete)
Cloches à travers les feuilles (No. 1 from Images pour piano - Book 2)
Dvorak:
Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33
Franck, C:
Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14
Violin Sonata in A major
Liszt:
Erlkönig (No. 4 from Zwölf Lieder von Franz Schubert, S558)
Concerto pathétique for Piano and Orchestra, S365a
Mendelssohn:
Variations sérieuses in D minor Op. 54
Mozart:
Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K482
Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K595
Mussorgsky:
Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version)
Prokofiev:
Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14
Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29
Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82
Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55
Ravel:
Valses nobles et sentimentales
Piano Trio in A minor
Schubert:
Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D960
Piano Sonata No. 6 in E minor, D566
Piano Sonata No. 13 in A major, D664
Piano Sonata No. 11 in F minor, D625
Klavierstücke (3), D946
Schumann:
Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Scriabin:
Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64 'White Mass'
Prometheus (The Poem of Fire), Op. 60
Shostakovich:
Violin Sonata, Op. 134
Viola Sonata, Op. 147
Wagner:
Elegy in A flat |
| 400.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
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ID: MELCD1002299
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Vocal and Opera Collection
Subcollection: Voices and Orchestra
Firma Melodiya presents a jubilee release of one of the most distinguished singers of modern times - Elena Obraztsova.
Obraztsova has sung at the world’s best opera and concert houses. Her operatic heroines are known and loved by millions of listeners on different continents. She has worked with the greatest opera directors, conductors and soloists. However, the singer still considers the Bolshoi Theatre her principal operatic home, where she debuted as Marina Mniszech in Boris Godunov more than fifty years ago.
That was the time of the Bolshoi’s golden cohort, when Obraztsova’s voice and dramatic gift shone among the other outstanding representatives of Soviet music art. That was an era of the Bolshoi’s first international triumphs when the young singer, along with the other new soloists of the troupe, was receiving rousing welcomes during the tours of Italy and the United States. That was an era when the perennial traditions existed in harmony with the spirit of newness introduced by the younger artists and the experience shared with foreign peers.
The release features fragments of Russian and foreign operas which make up just a portion of Elena Obraztsova’s extensive repertoire. Still, they largely convey the main features of her performing individuality, her mastery of musical dramatic transformation making us recognize the singer’s voice on recordings from different years.
The music by Donizetti, Verdi, Saint-Saens, Bizet, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky is performed to the accompaniment of the USSR Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra conducted by the outstanding maestros Boris Khaikin, Odyssey Dimitriadi, Algis Žiūraitis and Mark Ermler.
Bizet -L'amour est un oiseau rebelle 'Habanera' (from Carmen)
Donizetti -O mio Fernando (from La Favorita)
Massenet - Va! Laisse couler mes larmes (from Werther)
Mussorgsky - Marfa's Prophecy (from Khovanshchina) / Skushno Marina! (from Boris Godunov)
Rimsky Korsakov - Kashcheevna's Scene (from Kashchey the Immortal)
Lioubasha's aria (from The Tsar's Bride)
Lel's Third Song (from The Snow Maiden)
All night I have waited for him in vain (from Sadko)
Saint-Saëns - Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse (Samson et Dalila)
Tchaikovsky - Da, chas nastal! (from Joan of Arc)
Podrugi milyye (from The Queen of Spades)
Countess's Scene (from Pique Dame)
Verdi - O don fatale (from Don Carlo)
Stride la vampa (from Il Trovatore) |
| 16.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
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ID: MKM248
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Voices and Orchestra
Booklet and inlay only in russian language. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: MKM251
CDs: 3
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Voices and Orchestra
Booklet and inlay only in russian language.
MKM248, MKM249, MKM250 |
| 29.00 eur Buy |
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ID: MKM265
CDs: 3
Type: CD
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Collection: Wartime Music
Subcollection: Choir
MKM098, MKM117, MKM085
Russian Music: Military and Historical Songs |
| 29.00 eur Buy |
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