Search - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky :: Russian Opera Arias

Another Naxos winner.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 06/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Serious music lovers with half an ear will be aware that Russian is one of the most suitable languages for singing. They'll also be aware that not many CDs come to hand which provide opportunities to hear it. All the more welcome therefore is this issue, from the adventurous and widely-distributed Naxos label, of a collection of tenor arias and orchestral excerpts from Russian operas. The tenor arias are allocated to Vladimir Grishko, a Ukrainian tenor whose career seems to date from several prize winning appearances he made in competitions in 1989. He enunciates beautifully, his voice is free of wobble, and the tone is free and open throughout the whole range. All the orchestral forces are Russian and the orchestral items are conducted by Theodore Kuchar, who secures wider dynamic extremes that are usually heard in the popular Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky items. A final word of praises is for the format of this CD. Juxtaposing orchestral and vocal excerpts from the selected Russian operas makes for 67 minutes of varied and well-programmed listening."

Sampling the Russian tenor repertoire

N. Freidin | Huntington, WV | 11/18/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first of a two-volume collection of tenor arias from classic Russian operas. The first volume offers arias from works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Arensky. The second volume, in addition to more of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, features arias from works by Glinka, Rachmaninov, Borodin, and Dargomizhsky. All in all, a wide selection of the best known Russian operas. The arias are interspersed with orchestral interludes, providing some context and mood for the vocal displays.



Vladimir Grishko, a Ukrainian, has that reedy high voice typical of the Russian tenor, but he sings with great feeling. He is accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Ukraine State Radio Symphony Orchestra, under Theodore Kuchar and Vladimir Sirenko, respectively. Both orchestras play with verve.



If you want a fairly comprehensive sampling of Russian operatic music for tenor voice, at low cost, you cannot do better than this. Naxos excels once again at providing excellent quality at a budget price.



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Russian Opera Arias

Dr. Fernando Cordova | San Juan, Puerto Rico United States | 04/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These two disks are a very nice compendium of the tenor arias in Classical Russian Opera, and very nicely sung too. They are certainly not disgraced by comparison with the likes of Koslovsky and Lemeshev. And the interpositioning of the interludes from the various works does make a nice balanced program and prevents the tedium sometimes incurred when listenig to any singer for a straight uninterrupted hour. It belongs in any Russian opera collection."