This Song Cycle is not for the faint hearted. If you are feeling depressed, then better not listen until you are on the mend. But the performance will amaze you. Sunless is a set of six songs by Modest Moussorgsky in which he pours out his feelings of frustration, loneliness and despondency. For him, the world is a place where the two people he really loved have died, his best music is boycotted, ignored or mutilated. and his former colleagues have deserted him. The poems are the work of Arsenyi Golenishchev Kutuzov, a relation of Moussorgsky, who understood and was inspired by Moussorgskys predicament. The songs occupy a unique place in musical history for no-one has described boredom, despair or hopelessness with such conviction. The song titles are 1 В четырех стенах (Within four walls) In my lonely room I lie sleepless. It is dark and I am sad. A faint ray of hope flickers but it is extinguished. So passes the long and weary night. 2 Меня в толпе ты не узнала (Thou didst not know me in the crowd) I saw you in the crowd but you knew me not. When our eyes met, old passions set my heart throbbing, but for a flickering moment only. 3 Окончен праздный шумный день (The idle. noisy day is ended) The heat of the day is gone and work is done. Others sleep but I recall the past, the ghost of her to whom I gave my only treasure, a silent tear. 4 Скучай (Boredom) How weary is life.The heart deceives and words of love are false. Only youth believes. Weariness is our companion to the grave. 5 Элегия (Elegy) In the middle of the night my thoughts wander like the drifting clouds. I hear the tinkle of bells. It is the horses straying on the plain. I see a face I once loved. But when the morning star pales, it is the bell of death which tolls. All hope is gone. 6 Над рекой (By the River) The moon is mirrored in the water as I gaze in silence. The wavelets speak of life and of death; of delight and of dread. Do they bid me go on? Or do they call me? I am ready. The vivid performances of Oda Slobodskaya and her pianist Ivor Newton are all the more remarkable as the recording was made in 1961 when Slobodskaya was in her seventies.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:32:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015