TCHAIKOVSKY The Snow Maiden
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Genre:
Opera
Label: Sony Classical
Magazine Review Date: 03/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 88875 17656-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Snow Maiden |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Annely Peebo, Mezzo soprano Kristjan Järvi, Conductor MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig MDR Symphony Orchestra Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Vsevolod Grivnov, Tenor |
Author: Mark Pullinger
Tchaikovsky’s music accompanied a new play by Ostrovsky drawing on the old Russian fairy-tale of Snegurochka. ‘It is one of my favourite offspring,’ Tchaikovsky wrote to Nadezhda von Meck. ‘I think the happy spring-like mood with which I was filled at the time must be audible in the music.’ He wasn’t wrong. It is a delectable score, full of unbroken sunshine, composed in the spring of 1873. Tchaikovsky had just edited a folksong collection published by Vasily Prokunin and he based some of his Snow Maiden score on folk tunes.
Kristjan Järvi’s account is excellent. There is a welcome warmth to the MDR Leipzig strings, recorded in concert. He is generally a smidgen faster than Järvi Snr in most numbers. Highlights include an exhilarating ‘Dance of the Tumblers’, every bit as brilliant as Rimsky-Korsakov’s in his operatic version of the tale. He sculpts the little andantino melodrama (tr 11) with wistful care and Tsar Berendey’s March bustles along. Vsevolod Grivnov provides tenorial heft, while mezzo Annely Peebo lends plenty of character to Lel’s songs; as in the Chandos recording, both versions of Lel’s Third Song are included.
Sony’s bright recording captures the sunshine in the score. The booklet contains a good synopsis of the plot but there are no texts to the 14 vocal numbers – a minor blip to an otherwise joyous recording.
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