Russian Settings of Robert Burns

Albumbeschreibung

Russian admiration for the poetry of Robert Burns dates not, as might be supposed, from the nineteenth century but from the Communist era, when Burns was regarded as a kind of people's poet. The specific stimulus for the settings on this release by Shostakovich and the infamous Tikhon Khrennikov, from which the other works flowed, was the World War II alliance between the Soviet Union and Britain. Russian Jewish poet Samuil Marshak translated Burns into Russian, taking care to avoid the raunchier aspects (Stalin was a notorious puritan) and anything detracting from the main message of peasant virtue. He also required many words to say what Burns could say in a few. English translations included in the booklet are not translations of Burns but of Marshak's translations, and they are in several cases a good deal longer than the originals. They also show Marshak's massagings. The booklet includes two essays; one, by Burns scholar Andrew Noble, is critical of the Soviet appropriation of Burns, but both note the ways in which some of the composers, Shostakovich especially, worked at cross purposes with their lyricist. Burns' war poetry calls forth some of the strongest responses from these composers, living under the shadow of a war in which 20 million soldiers died. The setting of Highland Laddie by Gyorgy Sviridov, composed in 1955, makes explicit the bleakness contained in Burns' lyric. Burns' humor largely goes by the wayside, although the sly setting of Comin' Thro' the Rye by Shostakovich (track 14) is an exception. Sviridov and Levitin were Shostakovich's students, and their settings bear a resemblance to each other's, although not so much to their teacher's; the more conservative Khrennikov retreated to the language of late Russian romanticism, and it's quite a shock to hear the words of "Auld Lang Syne" (whose popularity in North America is largely the work of the bandleader Guy Lombardo) set in this way. The ideological complexities involved in this music shouldn't obscure the fact that it's for the most part a lot of fun, and the performances by Ukrainian-British bass-baritone Vassily Savenko are enthusiastic and confident. He is ably accompanied by Aleksandr Blok, a relative of the poet of the same name. Another intriguing hour from the consistently original Toccata Classics label.
© TiVo

Informationen zur Originalaufnahme : 60:34 - DDD - Enregistré en septembre 2002 et septembre 2005 à la Grande Salle du Conservatoire de Moscou - Notes en anglais avec les textes chantés en russe et anglais