Two half hour cantatas
with soloists, chorus and orchestra
and one cycle for three soloists with
choir and piano ... all from the pen
of Tchaikovsky.
Festival and academic
cantatas poured forth from Sibelius,
Nielsen, Alfvén and many another
late nineteenth century composer. These
were valuable income-producing commissions
and even carried some transient prestige.
For the most part however they have
sunk deep into oblivion. They are fairly
expensive to mount and so it should
come as no surprise that in any revivals
they are the last thing to appear on
disc. There has been no systematic attempt
to give them a new lease of life - not
even at the hands of Bis. Sterling,
as in so many things, are an honourable
exception in the case of Alfvén
with two volumes already released.
The two Tchaikovsky
cantatas will go some way towards satisfying
the curiosity of the Tchaikovsky arcana
completist. The six part Moscow piece
(each with its own track) is to words
by Apollon Maykov. It basks in the melodramatic
crimson of Natalya Derbina; she certainly
has her role by the throat. Listen to
her implacable concentration in the
‘pendulum of time’ tolling though Am
I a warrior. The final section is
grand and the choral part blazes - the
two soloists stand and deliver like
true stalwarts. The vibrantly rushing
repeated string waves echo with 1812
(tr. 6 4.55) and the brass writing growls
magnificently as it also does at the
end of section 4 From the Large Forest
(4.34).
The Festival Cantata
is in one half hour track. It was
written as a remunerative distraction
from the composer’s work on the opera
The Oprichnik and Tchaikovsky
fled from the opportunity to hear the
premiere and its second performance.
From a shadowy opening we move into
a typically light-bright section for
optimistic woodwind. Kuznetsov is as
strong and solid a tenor as you could
hope for - lean and robust, ringing
of tone, rising clear of the magnificent
din of choir and orchestra in Borodin-like
crashing magnificence (17.32). As with
Moscow, the orchestra
and choir go at it hammer and tongs
- no-one could accuse them of being
luke warm and even if the ending recalls
Borodin's Polovtsians no-one will feel
short-changed.
After the inky barbaric
splendour of the Festival Cantata's
peroration we move to the touching Nature
and Love which is beautifully and
entwiningly sung by the two sopranos
and an alto. This is ecstatic writing
recalling romantic twilit veranda scenes
on some Ukrainian estate. Think in terms
of Tatyana's Letter scene. This is a
really beautiful piece and should be
widely heard.
Invaluable notes by
James Murray again. Apart from the merest
hint of blast in the more extreme choral
moments in Moscow these are vivid
recordings from a gloriously purple
tradition.
Rob Barnett
R Glushkova; T Alexandrova, L Simonova,
Women's Group of the State Radio Choir/L Yermakova,
T Kravchenko (piano) 
