Tchaikovsky's Songs
Tchaikovsky's Songs
The Gramophone Choice
‘Romances’
My genius, my angel, my friend. Six Songs, Op 6 – No 1, Do not believe, my friend; No 2, Not a word, O my friend; No 5, Why?; No 6, None but the lonely heart. Cradle Song, Op 16 No 1. Six Songs, Op 25 – No 1, Reconciliation; No 2, Over burning ashes. The Fearful Moment, Op 28 No 6. Six Songs, Op 38 – No 2, It was in the early spring; No 3, At the Ball. Seven Songs, Op 47 – No 1, Had I only known; No 6, Can it be day?; No 7, The Bride’s Lament. Children’s Songs, Op 54 – Cuckoo. Twelve Songs, Op 60 – No 7, Gypsy Song; No 12, The mild stars looked down. The lights were being dimmed, Op 63 No 5. Six Songs, Op 73 – No 4, The sun has set; No 6, Again, as before, alone
Christianne Stotijn mez Julius Drake pf
Onyx Classics ONYX4034 (63’ · DDD · T/t) Buy from Amazon
For the most part these are angst-ridden stories of death and lost love. The two best-known songs open proceedings: ‘At the Ball’, with its reminiscence of unrequited passion to the lilt of a sad waltz, and then ‘None but the lonely heart’. Everyone conceivable from Rosa Ponselle to Frank Sinatra has recorded this, but Stotijn loses nothing in comparison with ghosts from the past. Her voice is a full-blooded mezzo but steady and true, without a hint of that vibrato that can often disturb the line in Slavonic singers (Stotijn is from the Netherlands).
The emotional climax of the selection comes with ‘The Bride’s Lament’. This outpouring of grief can seem over melodramatic but Stotijn and Drake find exactly the right mood. The piano parts are superbly done: in every sense these songs are duets. There are a couple of other light moments – ‘Cuckoo’, one of 16 children’s songs composed in the 1880s, and a ‘Gypsy Song’ from around the same time. Tchaikovsky’s songs are not nearly well enough known and this superb recital should encourage more interest in them.
