Russkaya Cappella Online Festival of Music

Yes, these really are tap-dancing noses. Shostokovich's first opera, written aged 20, was based on Gogol's short story The Nose, an absurdist satire on bureaucracy and officialdom. The opera fell out of favour the 1930s, but we can enjoy it today as a romp, and also as an example of the inventiveness of composers in the newly formed Soviet republic during the 1920s. According to a commentator below the YouTube clip, who is far better informed than I, the dancers are tapping the Morse code for D-S-C-H, Shostokovich's personal leitmotif. I don't know how well that works in Russian, but it's a nice touch by Royal Opera House.

This piece is another choice from Richard, our President.  And...deep breath folks...it is written by an Icelander!  Hildur Gu ðnad ó ttir composed the soundtrack for the recent HBO / Sky UK television drama Chernobyl, based on the events of 1986. Here the soundtrack uses an arrangement of Vechnaya pamyat' (Eternal Memory), usually sung during a funeral or memorial service. This recording is sung by  Homin Lviv Municipal Choir  

Lamentations of the Virgin Mary (29.33 minutes in) Artur Lourie (1892 - 1966) studied composition with Glazunov in St Petersburg before emigrating to Paris in 1921. He was a friend and supporter of Stravinsky during the 1920s and certain stylistic similarities can be heard in their work. Lourie's Lamentations was performed at London's Wigmore Hall in 1923 by Cynthia Davril, and it did not make a good impression on the critic of the Westminster Gazette:   "... it was an effort which could have been omitted without loss. The composer has still to win fame in this country, but he is evidently a modernist of the deepest dye, so that one sympathised hardly less with the artists called on to make such fearsome noises than with one's self for having to hear them."  We are, of course, now able to listen and decide for ourselves if the work is fearsome noise or beautiful music. The recording is too large to embed, but is readily available on YouTube and the link above le

Our next selection, Evening Bells, has been made by George, our committee's Tenor Representative. He writes "This song is a family favourite and, interestingly, our familial love for it can be traced back at least a century. My great-grandfather George used to love it, my grandmother Alla loves it, my mum too and so do I. The lyrics of this song were adapted from a poem written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore, in his collection National Airs ." This version is sung by the Moscow Patriarchal Choir, and is borrowed with our thanks from Norman Fowler Sutton's extensive YouTube channel, where a  transliteration and translation of the lyrics can be found.

Still from Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozniy / Иван Грозный) The Swan Our next singer's choice comes from Andy, one of our basses, who recommends Prokofiev's soundtrack for Eisenstein's final masterpiece, Ivan the Terrible.  As Andy says, 'There is something for everyone on here.'  This excerpt, The Swan / Wedding Song, is one of the loveliest moments in the entire score.  Regretably Blogger isn't permitting film footage to be embedded this afternoon, however if the link above should take you straight to the piece on YouTube. If you haven't seen the film already, you're in for a treat. It was made in two parts (although Eisenstein intended it to have three); Stalin was delighted with the first part, released in 1944.  However he was less impressed by part two's portrayal of Ivan, a historical figure he apparently admired. Part two wasn't released until 1958, five years after Stalin and Prokofiev's deaths; by pure coincidence they both die

Our first piece of the weekend was chosen by our President, Richard, who sings bass and is particularly fond of the musical genre known as Romance (not quite folk songs, but still typically Russian and likely to be sung at social gatherings.) As we haven't sung together for a while we're bringing you a version with the lyrics, karaoke style.  In true Russkaya Cappella fashion we have a transliteration below for those of us who don't (yet) read Russian fluenty, so we can practice at home. Our usual orthography applies: ŏ is the neutral vowel, e sounds more like ye, ' replaces the soft sign etc. E- kha- li na troi- ke s bu- ben- tsa- mi, A vda- li mel’- ka- li ŏ - gon’- ki… Ekh, k ŏ- gda by mne te- per’ za va- mi, Du- shu by ra- zve- yat’ ŏ t t ŏ- sci! Dŏ- ro- gai dlin- nŏ- yu, Pŏ- go- dai lun- nŏ- yu, Da s pe- snei toi, Shto vdal’ le- tit zve- nya, I s toi sta- rin- no- yu, Da c se- mi- strun- nŏ- yu Shto pŏ nŏ- cham Tak mu- chi- la mu- nya. La