Tchaikovsky's Complete Songs

Résumé du livre

“In this splendid volume, Richard Sylvester treats Tchaikovsky’s songs with great sympathy and understanding, with special emphasis on relating the texts to the music. The songs are presented chronologically, interspersed with insightful observations about their relevance to the composer’s life. This book will be welcomed by performers and scholars, but its fluent readability and avoidance of unnecessary detail make it easily accessible to the general reader. A welcome bonus is a CD with 22 songs interpreted by outstanding singers of at least two generations.” —George Jellinek, author, critic, and host of WQXR’s nationally syndicated program “The Vocal Scene”

“. . . a new standard is set for scholarship on Russian song.” —Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of The Life of Musorgsky

Besides his symphonies and concertos, operas and ballets, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote 103 “romances,” or songs, which are among his most popular works in Russia. The lyrics to these songs, by poets famous and obscure, have never been studied. Richard D. Sylvester collects here for the first time all 103 song texts, reproducing them in Russian, with transliterations and translations. The texts are illuminated by commentaries on the songs’ historical context and performance histories, an extensive discography of singers and recordings, and a 73-minute CD presenting 22 songs performed by noted artists. For vocalists and music students, for the general audience interested in art songs and recordings of great singers, as well as for Tchaikovsky specialists and students of Russian language and literature, this book offers a unique window into Russian musical culture.