Galina Vishnevskaya
Her name will always be linked with that of the touching Tatiana, Pushkin's character in his utter masterpiece, Eugene Onegin by Tchaivoksky, one of the world’s most beautiful operas. The young Galina dreamed of this character - as much as Tatiana dreamed of the dashing Eugene who never wanted her: but the young soprano would make her dream a reality, becoming THE Tatiana of her times. Nicknamed "Star of the Bolshoi", the hardy Russian soprano had a dark childhood. A drunken father, an absent mother, she bore the full brunt of the siege of Leningrad, where she lost her parents and a part of her family. With her husband, cellist, pianist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovitch, she formed a couple which became a kind of window onto Russian culture for the rest of the world. But the support that they gave to dissident intellectuals (Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn), and their friendship with Shostakovich, drew the ire of the Soviet regime and saw them plunged into disgrace. They would leave the USSR in 1974, stripped of their citizenship. Refugees in the USA, they finally came to rest in Paris.
A lyrical soprano as much as a dramatic soprano, Galina Vishnevskaya excelled in the Russian repertoire, of course, especially in Shostakovich's operas where she played a smouldering Lady Macbeth. It was for her that Shostakovich would write Satires, and the very profound Seven Romances on Verses by Alexander Block. This legend of the golden age of the Bolshoi, which she joined in 1953, also sang, from 1961, in the Met in New York, where she made her début with Aïda. At La Scala in Milan she played Liù (Turandot) with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli as partners.
Performer and dedicatee of many works, War Requiem by Britten, Symphony no 14 by Shostakovitch, Polish Requiem by Penderecki, she also became a screen actress in Alexandra, the film by Alexandre Sokourov shown at the 2007 Cannes Festival, in which she plays the title role. In 1996 she even became a new operatic heroine, not this time as a performer, but as a fictional character: in Galina, an opera written by Marcel Landowski based on her autobiography and brought to the stage at the Lyon Opéra, directed by John Nelson.
This titan of song and politics leaves us a discography which perfectly reflects her tastes and talent. Her first recording of Eugene Onegin (there would be others later on), made at the Bolshoi in 1955 under the direction of Boris Khaikine, remains legendary and a compulsory addition to any record collection. Hers is a fiery and passionate Tatiana, alongside tenor Sergey Lemechev, the finest and most moving Lenski ever yet recorded. To complete the legend, let us not forget her Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Shostakovich's black masterpiece, under the direction of Rostropovitch, or her Natasha in War and Peace, Prokofiev's vast opera (with 45 characters), recorded in Paris with the French National Orchestra in 1986, also conducted by Rostropovich.
It was with the latter, with baton or at the piano, that she recorded The Queen of Spades and Iolanta by Tchaikovsky, alongside many Russian melodies and romances. Alongside her studio recordings, we also find live recordings on Qobuz which remain a precious testimony to the singer in repertoires other than the official records.
© François Hudry/QOBUZ/November 2017
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Britten: War Requiem
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Galina Vishnevskaya / Mstislav Rostropovich - Rachmaninov/Glinka: Songs
Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich
Klassik - Erschienen bei Deutsche Grammophon (DG) am 01.01.1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Oper - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.04.1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Modest Mussorgsky: Russian Songs, Pictures at an Exhibition - Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Igor Markevitch, Berliner Philharmoniker, Russian Symphony Orchestra, Galina Vishnevskaya
Symphonien - Erschienen bei Praga Digitals am 01.10.2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: War Requiem
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.05.1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Galina Vishnevskaya Sings Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky & Glinka
Klassik - Erschienen bei Sony Classical am 18.11.2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich & Mussorgsky: Songs
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.03.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Galina Vishnevskaya: Songs and Arias
Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich, Academic Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Philharmonic Society, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Russian Compact Disc am 03.02.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sergey Prokofiev: War and Peace, Op. 91 [1961]
Eugen Kibkalo, Galina Vishnevskaya, Vladimir Petrov
Oper - Erschienen bei Classical Moments am 19.03.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lebendige Vergangenheit - Galina Vishnevskaya
Klassik - Erschienen bei Preiser Records am 04.05.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Messa da Requiem
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 01.01.1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Messa da Requiem - Mussorgsky: 6 Songs
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania Records am 20.04.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
Oper - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.09.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death / Prokofiev: 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova / Tchaikovsky: 3 Songs
Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 11.10.1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vishnevskaya: Essential Recordings
Klassik - Erschienen bei UME - Global Clearing House am 08.12.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Russian Song Recital (Mono Version)
Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich
Klassik - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Program Of Arias And Songs
Oper - Erschienen bei Artia Records am 04.05.1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Russian Mélodies & Romances ([APEX])
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 01.06.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Galina Vishnevskaya: Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev
Klassik - Erschienen bei JSC Firma Melodiya am 21.09.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Symphonie de psaumes - Mussorgsky: Songs (Mono Version)
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Igor Markevitch, Galina Vishnevskaya
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: War Requiem
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo