Throughout the 19th century—and beyond—the written word has occupied a crucial role in Russian culture. Whoever knows the theater works, the literary fiction, the essays and the poetry of this vast country gains great understanding of the Russian people, their aesthetics, their temperament and their values.
Nineteenth-century composers from Mikhail Glinka to Sergei Rachmaninoff treasured strong connections with the poetry of their contemporaries, turning to those texts as a source for their remarkable body of solo songs. Their “romans”—the parallel term in Russian for German “Lieder” and French “mélodies”—tended toward heart-on-the-sleeve, passionately felt expressions. With full attention to the partnership of voice and piano, and to the interaction of the music and the word (especially the prosody of the Russian language), composers wove the poetic texts into well-polished gems.
This concert’s five Russian songs constitute a representative sampling from this great treasury. Noting the overlapping life spans of the four composers and the five poets, we can surmise that they worked in a common aesthetic environment that supported their creativity, in word and in music.
“Song of the Goldfish”
No. 16 in a collection of 20 Romans composed between 1857 and 1865.
Mily Balakirev (b. Nizhny Novgorod, January 2, 1837; d. Saint Petersburg, May 19, 1910)
Mikhail Lermentov (b. Moscow, October 15, 1814; d. Pyatigorsk, Caucasus, July 27, 1841)
Composed 1858; 2 1/2 minutes
The long trajectory of Mily Balakirev's professional life began with his accomplishments as an esteemed pianist, conductor and composer. He was an early de facto leader of his contemporaries who were drawn to explore the rich musical heritage of Russian folk music, and to combine it with their fledgling composition efforts. As a composer, Balakirev became well-known for his virtuosic solo piano work Islamey, and like many of his peers, he turned to poetry as the basis for solo songs. He wrote “The Goldfish's Song” sometime between 1857 and 1865, when it was published in a collection of 20 Romances (romans).
For the “Goldfish's Song” Balakirev chose to set the poetry of Mikhail Lermontov, whose body of poetry provided the basis of songs by at least fifty other Russian composers. With Pushkin, Lermontov has earned a place in the highest ranks of Russian literature. Like Balakirev and other like-minded contemporaries, Lermontov was drawn to the worlds of folklore and folk songs. “The Song of the Goldfish” comes from a well-known folktale that several composers set to music.
My child, Sleep! Your bed is soft,
Stay here with me— Your veil is translucent.
Living in water is easy, Years and centuries will pass
It is both cool and quiet. To the murmurs of miraculous dreams.
I shall call my sisters: My darling! I shall not conceal
With our round dance That I do love you,
We shall cheer up your misty look As I love the free stream,
And your tired mind. As I love my life...
[Translation by Sergey Suslov]
“Arion,” Op. 34, No. 5
Sergei Rachmaninoff (b. At Semyonovo, a Rachmaninoff family estate in the Staraya Russa region, March 20, 1873; d. Hollywood, California, March 28, 1943)
Aleksandr Pushkin (b. Moscow, June 6, 1799; d. Saint Petersburg, February 10, 1837)
Composed 1912; 3 minutes
Between 1890 and 1916 (shortly before he entered permanent exile from his beloved Russia), Sergei Rachmaninoff composed some 80 songs for voice and piano, to the texts of an array of poets. (However, one of his most famous and beloved works is a song-without-words, the “Vocalise,” published in the same volume as “Arion.”) An avid reader of poetry, typical for that era, Rachmaninoff chose to set the works of many of his compatriots, as well as poets of other lands, including Goethe, Heine, Victor Hugo and Shelley (whose words he translated into Russian).
Like those four poets in Germany, England and France, the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin realized the power of his language to touch the essence of the people. With good reason, he is considered the greatest Russian poet, who set the standard for Russian writers to follow.
There were many of us in the bark; Sang to the seafarers...Suddenly,
Some manned the sails, The waves’ bosom
Others, as one, plunged the powerful oars Was crushed by a roaring whirlwind...
Deep in the waters. In calm seas, The helmsman and the seamen perished.
Our wise helmsman, Bent over the wheel, Onto the shore thrown by the storm,
Guided the heavily laden bark. I sing the hymns I sang before,
And I, trusting and carefree, And my damp raiment
I dry by the cliff, in the sun.
[Translation by Natalia Challis]
“The Lark”
Mikhail Glinka (b. Novosspaskoye, Russia, June 1, 1804; d. Berlin, February 15, 1857)
Nestor Kukolnik (b. Saint Petersburg, September 8, 1809; d. Taganrog, Russia, December 8, 1868)
Composed 1840; 3 1/2 minutes
“The Lark,” No. 10 of a volume of twelve songs that Mikhail Glinka published in 1840, was inspired by his friend Nestor Kukolnik, a playwright and poet with whom Glinka collaborated frequently. Kukolnik provided Glinka with not only a number of poems, but also the libretto for his opera A Life for the Czar.
Between heaven and earth The wind carries his song,
A song emanates forth, Although it doesn’t know to whom.
The stream, sourceless, She, she will understand to whom it’s for,
Flows louder, louder. From whom it is – she will discover!
The singer of the field is not seen! Flow then, my song,
Where he sings so loudly Song of sweet hope…
Above his sweetheart Someone will remember about me
The resonant lark. And will sigh furtively.
[Translation by Jacob Wilde]
“It Was Not the Wind,” Op. 43, No. 2
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (b.Tikhvin, Russia, March 18, 1844; d. Liubensk, Russia, June 21, 1908)
Count Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (b. Saint Petersburg, September 5, 1817; d. Chernigov, Bryansk Province, Russia, October 10, 1875)
First published 1851-52; 2 minutes
The poem “It Was Not the Wind,” written in 1851 by Count A. K. Tolstoy (a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy), inspired Rimsky-Korsakov to compose this wistful love letter. The poet, Count Aleksey Tolstoy, was a highly educated graduate of the University of Moscow. A bon vivant (who specialized in high society and short-lived romances), and a diplomat, infantry major, bureaucrat, aide-de-camp to Czar Alexander II and notorious prankster, Tolstoy also acquired fame as an acclaimed author of published essays and poetry. Rimsky-Korsakov, like multitudes of other literate Russians, would easily have encountered his work.
It was not the wind, blowing from on high, And tore violently at its strings
That touched the leaves on that moonlit night. And covered it with cold snow.
It was you who touched my soul. But your words comfort the ear,
It trembled, as leaves do, And your gentle caress
It has many strings, like a harp. Is like the down of petals,
The storms of life tormented it And soft breath of a May night.
And, whistling and wailing, bore down on it
[Translation by Philip Ross Bullock]
“Oh, These Midsummer Nights,” Op. 14, No. 5
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Daniil Rathaus (b. Kharkiv, Ukraine, February 25, 1868; d. Prague, June 6, 1937)
Composed 1894; 2 minutes
“Oh, These Midsummer Nights” was one of twelve songs published in 1894 as Op. 14. Rachmaninoff, at age 21, had already composed and published two dozen songs, and would continue heeding the call of poetry with another fifty, until he left Russia in 1916.
A writer of popular romances and poetry, Daniil Rathaus, like Rachmaninoff, left Russia in 1917, never to return. Rachmaninoff was but one of several composers who set Rathaus’s poems to music; in addition to “Oh, These Midsummer Nights” Rathaus's “All Things Depart” became the text of a Rachmaninoff song that was published in 1906. Daniil Rathaus died in Prague, still in exile, in 1937.
In his years abroad Rachmaninoff acquired a public reputation as a dour, gloomy individual. Hearing his music, including his many songs, refutes such a shallow reading of this man's nature. His intensive devotion to his homeland and its language is particularly apparent in the songs. He would remain in permanent exile from Russia, and he never composed another song.
O, no, I beg you, do not leave! And how I need your love…
All pain is naught compared to parting, New torments I await before me
I’m so enraptured by this torment, Like kisses and caresses,
Please hold me closer to your heart I only ask of you in anguish—
And say, “I love you.” O, be with me and do not leave!
I came again, O, be with me and do not leave!
Tormented, ill and pale.
See how I am weak and sad
[Translation by Natalia Challis]
— Program notes by Sandra Hyslop