Maxim Gorky

From high atop the beautiful town of  Nizhny Novgorod  in the lovely  Nizhny Novgorod oblast, it's time once again for Sadko's World of Music. The role of Sadko today is being played by Jehudiel Khlamida. The role of the Bobbsie Twins is being played by  Savva and Slava Morozova. The role of Ken Moss is being played by Anatoly Lunacharsky.  In the third half of the program, the role of Lenny the Listener will  be played by Makar Chudra.  Our featured great Russian writer today is Maxim Gorky. Alexei Maximovich Peshkov  (28 March 1868 – 18 June 1936), primarily known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky was a Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.

Composers  and Conductors named Max
Bruch, Max,1838-1920. Fantasie unter freier Benutzung schottischer Volksmelodien, violin, harp, orchestra,op.46 Scottish fantasy RCA Victor [1962] Jascha Heifetz,
violin; New Symphony Orchestra of London; Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor.
Haydn, Joseph,1732-1809. Symphony no. 91, in E-flat major Decca [1970] Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Max Rudolf, conductor.
Bruch, Max, 1838-1920 Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op. 26 Angel [1973]. Itzhak Perlman, violin; London Symphony Orchestra; André Previn, conductor.

Bitter Songs
Great Wedding Songs – Bitter Sweet Symphony
Gordon Lightfoot – Bitter Green
Curtis Mayfield – The Makings Of You - Live @ Bitter End, NYC
Benjamin Britten, The Bitter Withy, folk song for tenor, boys' chorus and piano (unfinished) Christopher Barnett Conductor Wenhaston Boys' Choir Naxos David Owen Norris Piano, Philip Langridge Tenor
Johannes Brahms, 4 ernste Gesänge, Op.121  O Tod, wie bitter bist du Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Baritone Profil
Mikhail Glinka Bitter, bitter it is for me (Gor'kom gor'ko mne), G.x28 Natalia Gerasimova Vocals
Russian Compact Disc Igor Mikhailovich Zhukov Piano
Noel Coward, Bitter Sweet (operetta) Dame Joan Sutherland Soprano Decca
John Leach Cimbalom, John Wakefield Tenor, Orchestra, Richard Bonynge Conductor
Act 1 - I'll see you again
Thomas Fielding, Behold the Dark and Bitter Night, for harp & chorus Sigrid Johnson Conductor
VocalEssence Ensemble Clarion Lynne Aspnes Harp, Philip Brunelle Conductor, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers
Gladys Knight & The Pips – Taste of Bitter Love  – The Best Of Gladys Knight & The Pips

Leonhard Lechner, O Lieb Wie Süß und Bitter Manfred Cordes Conductor

CPO Weser-Renaissance Ensemble

According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gorky's return to the Soviet Union was motivated by material needs. In Sorrento, Gorky found himself without money and without fame. He visited the USSR several times after 1929, and in 1932 Joseph Stalin personally invited him to return for good, an offer he accepted. In June 1929, Gorky visited Solovki and wrote a positive article about that Gulag, which had already gained ill fame in the West.

With the increase of Stalinist repression and especially after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in December 1934, Gorky was placed under unannounced house arrest in his house near Moscow.
The sudden death of Gorky's son Maxim Peshkov in May 1934 was followed by the death of Maxim Gorky himself in June 1936. Speculation has long surrounded the circumstances of his death. Stalin and Molotov were among those who carried Gorky's coffin during the funeral. Later they went out for cocktails. During the Bukharin trial in 1938 (one of the three Moscow Trials), one of the charges was that Gorky was killed by Yagoda's NKVD agents.