The title should‚ more accurately‚ read ‘Russian operatic arias‚ overtures and dances’; that‚ I would say‚ is more widely attractive. Certainly it would help to account for more than half of my own pleasure in the disc. The orchestral and vocal items were recorded at different times and in different halls‚ the vocal part being done two years earlier (1997) and in a more (and excessively) resonant acoustic. There is too much of the bathroom around the voice‚ and the orchestral items‚ sensibly dispersed among the arias‚ come as a relief. Vladimir Grishko is no newcomer to the world of opera‚ though I don’t believe I have heard him before on records or ‘in the flesh’. He won the Viñas Vocal Prize in 1989 and has sung in various leading houses‚ including the Met. It is clearly a good voice‚ probably not as full­bodied as Sergei Larin or as lyrically fresh and imaginative in usage as Daniil Shtoda‚ but somewhere between the two in type and quality‚ most likeable when singing with some intimacy‚ yet capable of a good ringing high note in full voice as in the charming song from Act 1 of May Night. He seems better suited to such roles as Levko and Lensky than to Hermann in The Queen of Spades‚ where (at least in these excerpts) his characterisation needs a touch of something more intense and complex. Stylistically he does much well (the haunting aria from Sorochintsï Fair is a good example) but would do himself a favour by disciplining his habit of very slightly ‘lifting’ to a high note. The Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra plays well‚ Theodore Kuchar conducting with feeling for the repertoire. I don’t quite see this as a record for carefully considered buying‚ but rather as one likely to give incidental pleasure and afford some encouraging introductions if bought off the shelf ‘on spec’.