Aleksandr Blok

From high atop beautiful St. Petersburg, Russia it's time once again for Sadko's World of Music. We continue our great Russian Writers Series with Alexander Blok. Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg State University. After his parents' separation, Blok lived with aristocratic relatives at the manor Shakhmatovo near Moscow, where he discovered the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov, and the verse of then-obscure 19th-century poets, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet. These influences would affect his early publications, later collected in the book Ante Lucem. In 1903 he married Lyubov (Lyuba) Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, daughter of the renowned chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Later, she would involve him in a complicated love-hate relationship with his fellow Symbolist Andrei Bely. To Lyuba he dedicated a cycle of poetry that made him famous, Stikhi o prekrasnoi Dame (Verses About the Beautiful Lady, 1904).
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a late song cycle for soprano and piano trio, Seven Romances of Alexander Blok Beaux Arts Trio with Joan Rodgers.

I. Pesnya Ofelii (Ophelia's Song)
II. Gamayun, ptitsa veshchaya (Gamayun, the bird of prophecy)
III. Mï bïli vmeste (We were together)
IV. Gorod spit (The city sleeps)
V. Burya (The storm)
VI. Tayniye znaki (Mysterious signs)
VII. Muzïka (Music)
Bloch, Ernest,1880-1959. Sonata no. 1, for violin and piano. Columbia [1965] Isaac Stern, violin; Alexander Zakin, piano.
Andrei Krylov – Alexander Blok Poet's – Russian and Gypsy Romances, Folk Songs, Ballades. Music for 6 and 7 string guitar and voice.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 Beyond the Border of Past Days, song cycle for voice & piano, Op.50 Olga Kalugina Soprano Toccata Classics 2008 Dmitry Korostelyov Piano, Svetlana Nikolayeva Mezzo-Soprano
1.Dedication
2.War burns indomitably
3.What for?
4.Much has fallen silent
5.The poor ignoramuses laughed
6.A Spring Evening
7.In the Twilight
8.Someone was sighing at the grave
9.A Voice
10.Memory
Blok – Three Choir Miniatures: Round Dance State Capella Of St. Petersburg, Conductor: Vladislav Tchernushenko – Georgy Sviridov: Hymns To The Motherland
Mikhail Arkadiev and Dmitri Hvorostovsky– Peterburg (St. Petersburg):
No. 1. Flyuger (The Weathercock)
No. 2. Zolotoe veslo (The Golden Oar)
No. 3. Nevesta (The Bride)
No. 4. Golos iz khora (A Voice From the Chorus)
No. 5. Ya prigvozhdyon k traktirnoi stoike (I Am Nailed To a Tavern Counter)
No. 6. Veter prinyos izdalyoka (The Breeze Has Brought From Far Away)
No. 7. Petersburgskaya Pesenka (Petersburg Song, December 7, 1906)
No. 8. Rozhdennye v goda glukhie (Those Born in Obscure Years)
No. 9. Bogomater' v gorode (The Virgin City)
Gyorgy Sviridov – Sviridov, G.: Peterburg / 6 Romances
Gyorgy Sviridov,  The State Moscow Chamber Choir – The Night Clouds, Cantata: The Night Clouds,  By The Green Bank, The Clock's Hand Draws Near Midnight, Love, Balaganchik (The Tent At The Fair)
Gyorgy Sviridov, The State Moscow Chamber Choir – Songs Of Hard Times, Two Choruses Spring And A Wizard

Anton Chekov

From high atop beautiful Czechia and Paris. France , it's time once again for Sadko's World of Music. We continue our great Russian Writers Series with Anton Chekhov. Most famous for his plays, such as Three Sisters and Cherry Orchard, he also has a large number of short stories and was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. We will be alternating the music of various Czech composers with the music of Jacques Offenbach.
Bedřich Smetana. Unable to earn much money from his music (or from his school of music), Smetana´s life was overshadowed by the deaths of three of his four daughters within the space of two years, then the death of his wife three years later. It was not until 1866 when fortune smiled upon 42-year-old Smetana with the enthusiastic response to his opera The Brandenburgers in Bohemia. His next work, The Bartered Bride, was also successful. Smetana is also famous, of course, as the composer of Má Vlast. Like Beethoven, he suffered from deafness later in life, but continued to compose music. He died of syphilis-related complications in 1884, and was buried in the cemetery at Vyšehrad.
Overture to the Bartered Bride Smetana 1824-1884. Epic, [1957].  Orchestra of the Slovenian National Opera ; Dimitri Gebré, conductor. 
Can Can The Infernal Galop from Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld
Fat Boy Slim Because We Can from Moulin Rouge

Antonín Dvořák moved to Prague at the age of 16, where he studied music. He became a member of the National Theatre´s orchestra in 1861, remaining there for ten years (under the occasional leadership of Smetana). His work was admired by none other than Johannes Brahms, leading to a close friendship between the two musicians. Dvořák  went from strength to strength, becoming a professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory, traveling to London to conduct his music, receiving an honorary degree from Cambridge University and serving as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. It was here that he wrote his most famous work, From the New World. After his return to Prague and the Conservatory, he composed the beloved Rusalka. He is also buried in the cemetery at Vyšehrad.
Judi Dench, The Cherry Orchard 1962
Antonin Dvorak, O Silver Moon performed by Renee Fleming. The Art of Renee Fleming
Super Mario Bros, Can Can
Antonín Dvořák – Cypresses, B.152: IV. Poco adagio  – Dvorak: Cypress String Quartet, String Quartet No. 13 Op. 106

Leoš Janáček studied not only in Prague, but in Vienna and Leipzig. He was a native of Moravia, and spent most of his life in Brno, founding a college for organists there in 1881; he ran this college until 1920. Like Smetana, Janáček experienced more than one tragedy. His son Vladimír died at the age of two, and his daughter Olga died shortly after her father completed the score to his opera Jenůfa (which he played for her just four days before her death). His operas premiered in Brno before being performed in Prague; Jenůfa didn´t win wide acclaim until it was shown in Prague in 1915, eleven years after its Brno premiere. Janáček  himself - now in his 50s - became famous as a result. He died in 1928.
Janáček, Leoš, 1854-1928.   Jenůfa  Žárlivost overture London Digital, 1983.  Elisabeth Söderström, Lucia Popp, sopranos ; Eva Randová, alto ; Wiesłav Ochman, Peter Dvorsky, tenors ; Vienna State Opera Chorus  Vienna Philharmonic ; Charles Mackerras, conductor.
Kat'a Kabanová London,  1977. Elisabeth Söderström, Naděžda Kniplová, sopranos; Petr Dvorský, tenor; supporting soloists; Chorus of the Vienna State Opera; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Charles Mackerras, conductor.
Offenbach, Jacques, 1819-1880.  Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Selections. Tales of Hoffmann; highlights Angel [1967]  Gianna d'Angelo, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Victoria de los Angeles, sopranos, and Nicolai Gedda, tenor, in the title role, with supporting soloists; Chœurs René Duclos; Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire; André Cluytens, conductor; sung in French.

Bohuslav Martinů studied music in his hometown of Policka as a child; when he was sixteen, his mother took him to Prague to meet with music experts. Later that year, he entered the Prague Conservatoire. Martinů , however, began failing his exams by the end of his second year and eventually dropped out. He maintained an intense schedule of attending concerts, studying, and composing, with his works being performed in Prague. After World War I, he joined the Czech Philharmonic as second violinist, composing a piece titled Czech Rhapsody that was performed by the orchestra in 1919. Martinů then took the opportunity to study with composer Albert Roussel in Paris; during this period (1935) he was awarded a Czechoslovak State Prize for his opera Hry o Marií. When World War II exploded, Martinů went first to Switzerland, then the United States, arriving in 1941. Eventually returning to Switzerland, he died there in 1959.
Martinů – Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, Adagio Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra Various Artists – 50 Classics for Relaxation
Offenbach, Jacques,1819-1880. La Périchole.[An opéra bouffe in three acts] RCA Victor1957  Patrice Munsel, Theodor Uppman, and Cyril Ritchard, with supporting soloists; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Jean Morel, conductor.
Jan Jakub Ryba was born in Přeštice, near Pilsen, the son of an organist and composer. In 1780, he came to Prague to study music; an admirer of Mozart´s, he conducted a performance of The Marriage of Figaro here. In 1784, he took a job as a teacher in Nepomuk. He was soon fired from this position, and spent some time wandering from place to place, eventually taking another teaching job in Rožmitál pod Třenšínem. It was here that he met his wife, Anna; the couple had nine children. Though the school flourished under his guidance, he was frequently in conflict with the town pastor and council. 1796 was the year in which he wrote his most famous work, Hej, mistr, still often played at Christmas. In 1815, Ryba´s body was found in the woods; he had cut his throat with a razor. He was buried in a plague cemetery near Rožmitál pod Třenšínem.
Ryba, Jakub Jan – Ryba: Ceska Mse Vanocni: Agnus Dei 
Offenbach, Jacques,1819-1880.   Gaîte parisienne, as presented by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Arr. by Manuel Rosenthal.  Angel,  [1975]   Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra; Felix Slatkin, conductor.

Leo Tolstoy

From high atop beautiful Yasnaya Polyana, it's time once again for Sadko's World of Music. We continue our great Russian Writers Series with Leo Tolstoy. Most famous for his massive novel, War and Peace, he also has a musical connection in his short story (almost a novel) The Kreutzer Sonata.

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827. Sonata no. 9, in A major, op. 47 (Kreutzer)  Capitol [1961]  Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Hephzibah Menuhin, piano.
War and peace highlights  Prokofiev. Libretto by Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva.  Melodiya/Angel [1968] Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano, and other soloists, chorus, and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater; Alexander Melik- Pashayev, conductor
Rota, Nino,| 1911-1979.War and peace [from the sound track of the Paramount presentation]  Columbia Special Products [1956] 3 For orchestra; conducted by Franco Ferrara.
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827.   Wellingtons Sieg. Wellington's victory or The Battle of Vitoria.  Mercury [1961]   London Symphony Orchestra; cannons and muskets of the U. S. Military Academy; Deems Taylor, commentator; Antal Dorati, conductor.
Liszt, Franz, 1811-1886.  Introducing Ivan Davis playing piano works of Liszt. Columbia [1961]  Concert étude no. 3, in D-flat major (Un sospiro)--La Campanella.--Liebestraum.--Mephisto waltz.--Funerailles.-- Concert étude no. 2, in F minor (La leggierezza)-- Hungarian rhapsody no. 6.
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich, 1804-1857.   Ivan Susanin; or, A life for the tsar. London [1957?]  Soloists and Chorus of the National Opera, Belgrade, with Chorus of the Yugoslav Army; Oscar Danon, conductor.

The World of the balalaika Melodiya/Angel [1971]  Jingle bell.--Glorious sea, the sacred Baikal.--Oh, snow, light snow.--Dance of the little swans, from Swan lake.-- Siberian flax.--Ah, Nastasya!--Over the fields, open fields.--The coachman's song.--Dark eyes spell danger.-- Lost in the tall stand of grain.--Daybreak on the Moskva River, from Khovanshchina.--Oh, my heart.--Why a cloud of dust in the field?--Ah, Vanya.  Ludmila Zykina, soprano; Valentina Levko, mezzo-soprano; Ivan Petrov, bass; Osipov Balalaika Orchestra; Vitaly Gnutov and Viktor Dubrovsky, conductor.

Boris Pasternak

From high atop beautiful downtown Peredelkino, it's time once gain for Sadko's World of Music. Today we begin the great Russian writers series of shows. Our featured writer today is Boris Pasternak.
Regina Spektor – Après Moi – Begin To Hope
Boris Pasternak – Piano Sonata in B minor (1909): Moderato - Allegro moderato Sergei Rachmaninov – Sound of Verse - Piano Music of Pasternak, Ravel & Rachmaninov, Inna Faliks, piano

ПОСЛЕ ГРОЗЫ

Пронесшейся грозою полон воздух.
Все ожило, все дышит, как в раю.
Всем роспуском кистей лиловогроздыx
Сирень вбирает свежести струю.

Все живо переменою погоды.
Дождь заливает кровель желоба,
Но все светлее неба переходы,
И высь за черной тучей голуба.

Рука художника еще всесильней
Со всех вещей смывает грязь и пыль.
Преображенней из его красильни
Выходят жизнь, действительность и быль.

Воспоминание о полувеке
Пронесшейся грозой уходит вспять.
Столетье вышло из его опеки.
Пора дорогу будущему дать.

Не потрясенья и перевороты
Для новой жизни очищают путь,
А откровенья, бури и щедроты
Душе воспламененной чьей-нибудь.

The air is full of after-thunder freshness,
And everything rejoices and revives.
With the whole outburst of its purple clusters
The lilac drinks the air of paradise.

The gutters overflow; the change of weather
Makes all you see appear alive and new.
Meanwhile the shades of sky are growing lighter,
Beyond the blackest cloud the height is blue.

An artist's hand, with mastery still greater
Wipes dirt and dust off objects in his path.
Reality and life, the past and present,
Emerge transformed out of his color-bath.

The memory of over half a lifetime
Like swiftly passing thunder dies away.
The century is no more under wardship:
High time to let the future have its say.

It is not revolutions and upheavals
That clear the road to new and better days,
But revelations, lavishness and torments
Of someone's soul, inspired and ablaze. 
Russian National orchestra, conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony. 4th movement Allegro 
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 1840-1893.   The storm, op. 76 Melodiya/Angel, 1975.  Moscow Symphony Orchestra; Veronika Dudarova, conductor.
Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869.Overtures. RCA Victor [1961] Royal hunt and storm, from The Trojans (10 min., 51 sec.)

My Sister — Life
Сестра моя – жизнь и сегодня в разливе
Расшиблась весенним дождем обо всех,
Но люди в брелоках высоко брюзгливы
И вежливо жалят, как змеи в овсе.
У старших на это свои есть резоны.
Бесспорно, бесспорно смешон твой резон,
Что в грозу лиловы глаза и газоны
И пахнет сырой резедой горизонт.
Что в мае, когда поездов расписанье
Камышинской веткой читаешь в пути,
Оно грандиозней святого писанья
Хотя его сызнова всё перечти.
Что только закат озарит хуторянок,
Толпою теснящихся на нолотне,
Я слышу, что это не тот полустанок,
И солнце, садясь, соболезнует мне.
И в третий плеснув, уплывает звоночек
Сплошным извиненьем: жалею, не здесь.
Под шторку несет обгорающей ночью
И рушится степь со ступенек к звезде.
Мигая, моргая, но спят где-то сладко,
И фата-морганой любимая спит
Тем часом, как сердце, плеща по площадкам,
Вагонными дверцами сыплет в степи.

My sister — life — tonight the spring-rains
burst and flood in all of us, but grumbling
men with monocles and polished manners
snap at me like dragons in the oats.
The old corrode with reason, but I know —
you understand — that reasons are absurd.
Eyes and grass are violet in the thunder,
terror with a scent of unripe flowers —
moist to the horizon, so that, now,
in May, en route by train, the schedule
for the Kamyshin branch I just reread seems
grander than the words of sacred texts.
And here at sunset — village-lights,
as people swarm across the platform —
this is not my station — dying sunlight
gardens and consoles beside me.
And the third bell sails and lapses
with apologies: I’m sorry, I’m a stranger.
Under blinds, night scorches, and the steppe
collapses toward the stars in flights of stairs.
Stars flicker, blinking — somewhere sleep, like
honey — fata-morganas, love, sleep sometimes — my
heart laps the station platform. And the doors of
railway carriages pour open on the steppes.

Sergei Rachmaninov – Op. 38: To Her – Vijtoriya Dodoka: Rachmaninov Songs
Living Voices sing music from the motion picture The Singing Nun RCA Camden, [1966]  Sister Adele
Anita Kerr, arranger-conductor.
Love Me or Leave Me from the sound track of the MGM picture. Columbia Special Products Music by Irving Berlin and others.-- Stay on the Right Side, Sister / Bloom, Koehler Doris Day, with orchestra ; Percy Faith, conductor.
Leonard Cohen, Sisters of Mercy, The Songs of Leonard Cohen
Delius, Frederick, 1862-1934. A Mass of Life [text from Also sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche]  Angel 1972.  Heather Harper, soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Robert Tear, tenor; Benjamin Luxon, baritone; London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra; Charles Groves, conductor.
Balakirev, Miliĭ Alekseevich, 1837-1910. Fantasy on themes from A life for the Tsar. RCA Red Seal,  [1969]  Earl Wild, piano.
Bloch, Ernest, 1880-1959.  Baal Shem.  three pictures of Chassidic life. Columbia  [1965]   Isaac Stern, violin; Alexander Zakin, piano.