Messages

I haven't heard it yet, that's my point!

Sabaneyeff himself is hardly a stand-out composer so I'm choosing to judge for myself.

It's a reference to this post of mine earlier in this thread

Written, @eschiss1, in 2012...

What?

The only recording ever made of the opera "Prince Serebrenni" by Russian composer Petr Triodin (1887-1950) has been retrieved from archives and released by Aquarius Classics (excerpts):

https://www.aquarius-classics.ru/cdinfo_e.php?cdid=417

The most interesting archival find of recent times - one might say, the world premiere of a completely unknown classical Russian opera by P.N. Triodin "Prince Serebrenni" (based on the novel by A.K. Tolstoy).

It was first staged in the early 1920s at the Moscow Opera by S.I. Zimin (with the participation of A.S. Pirogov) and is even considered the first Soviet opera, although it was written in a traditional style, without any hint of innovation. Apparently this is partly why already at the end of the 1920s. it was removed from the repertoire and was no longer performed. Only after the war, fragments of the opera were recorded on the All-Union Radio with the participation of outstanding soloists of that time, but until now this recording was not known to anyone.

I will give only one piece of evidence about this opera, which was left by Ivan Kozlovsky, who performed the small role of Fyodor Basmanov in it in 1925 in Sverdlovsk: "Triodin's opera was truly melodic. Unfortunately, it did not stay in our repertoire for long. Why did this happen? I'll try to answer. Let it not be considered 'sacrilege', an inappropriate comparison, but wasn't 'Boris Godunov' first 'buried'? It hasn't been staged for decades! What about today? Life has confirmed the genius of the phenomenal work of the great Mussorgsky. There are many such examples... It's a pity, of course, that 'Prince Serebrenni' quickly left the stage! But in fact, everything depended on the persistence and inquisitiveness of the mind, which are required to prove the significance of a particular work."

As a supplement, there are rare recordings of the wonderful singer of the All-Union Radio Sofia Nikolaevna Kiseleva. None of these magnificent gems of her chamber repertoire have ever been published.
                  M. Nikiforov

Ivan the Terrible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexey Korolev
Prince Silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniil Demyanov
Elena Morozova. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sofya Kiseleva
Pashenka. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Claudia Konstantinova
Ivan Ring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anton Tkachenko
Peasant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trofim Antonenko

            Choir and orchestra of the All-Union Radio
              Conductor - Alexey Kovalev
                    Recorded in 1946
  1. Overture
  2. Monologue of Ivan the Terrible
  3. Choral song "Like the grass, the ant" (choir, peasant)
  4. Dance song "Say, tell, sparrow "and scene (Prince Serebryany, peasant)
  5. Arioso of Prince Serebryany and scene "I have not seen human joy for a long time" (Prince Serebryany, peasant)
  6. Round dance song "Like Yar-Khmel beyond the Volga"
  7. Arioso of Prince Serebryany "It's been five years since I've seen Moscow"
  8. Male choir "Oh, you, wide steppe" (Ivan Ring, peasant, choir)
  9. Scene in the garden at the house of boyar Morozov (Elena, Pashenka, Prince Serebryany, choir)

Addition: Sofia Kiseleva sings
10. I won't tell anyone (O. Dyutsh)
11. He left (S. Donaurov)
12. Ophelia's song (A. Varlamov)
13 But if I could meet you ("In Separation") (M. Mussorgsky)
14. The Virgin and the Sun (N. Rimsky-Korsakov)
15. Like over hot ashes (P. Tchaikovsky)
16. Why are you drooping, green willow (A. Grechaninov)
17. To the kingdom of roses and wine (D. Arakishvili (from Gafiz))
18. Among the meadows there is a house (I. Brahms)
19. Oh, turn your gaze (I. Brahms)

(A summary of Alexei Tolstoy's novel Prince Serebrenni is here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Serebrenni) - it's also known as "The Silver Knight" (Serebrenni means silver in Russian).

More about Triodin (in Russian) - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Триодин,_Пётр_Николаевич

Camille Saint-Saëns' Déjanire is on the way! To be released on 12th April 2024.

See bru-zane.com/en/pubblicazione/dejanire/ for details.

Hurrah! Thank you for this update BerlinExpat.

I think that's now all Saint-Saens operas recorded?

Another production of Frédégonde! Again supported by Palezzetto Bru Zane.

Two performances on 10 & 12 June 2022 in the Grand Théâtre de Tours with the following:

Frédégonde I Kate Aldrich
Brunhilda I Angélique Boudeville
Mérowig I Florian Laconi
Hilpéric I Tassis Christoyannis
Prétextat I Jean-Fernand Setti
Fortunatus I Artavazd Sargsyan
Landéric I Yuri Kissin
Choeur de l'Opéra de Tours et du Capitole de Toulouse
Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre-Val de Loire/Tours
Direction musicale I Laurent Campellone

I just came across this on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgPBEtsWFo - which appears to be a recording of the version that Berlinexpat mentioned above.  I'm not sure if it's an official recording or some kind of bootleg...

And back to Skorulskyi, as Alan might say. (I could say that I paid a fair amount of money towards this performance and then traveled into a war zone to ensure it was recorded. But I won't. Nevertheless a bit of commentary, with no obligation to like it, would always be appreciated.)

The guys at Ukrainian Live have sent me an mp3 of the Cello Concerto, which I have put into the Downloads section.

The guys at Ukrainian Live have sent me an MP3, which I have labelled up and put into the Downloads section.

That's what I've written to them about. And others... fingers are crossed (in hope if not expectation!)

I just noticed this website (in German) which seems to be about promoting the music of Catoire and others:

https://www.catoire-musikinitiative.de/

I have written to them re his Rusalka cantata.

A Russian friend of mine says napevy is a word that has connotation of folk/gypsy/rustic music. He also confirmed my suspicions that the Russian word is napev or napevy (plural) not napeve, which looks more like another Slav language.

"Napeve" means "melody" in Russian. so I found three candidates: Canzonina in F# Min: Andante in Pt II; Chant apocriphe in B-Flat Min: Andante in Pt III; Chant in E Min: Andante doloroso in Pt V. The tempo all fit, but not the key. The key in the ASV recording is apparently G Minor. I could imagine that the canzonina was transposed a semitone higher.

Napeve means more like "chant" in Russian and various other Slav languages.  I don't know if that makes a difference?

The performance of Cui's Prisoner of the Caucasus mentioned above has recently been copied over to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=753oTQVnwmQ