#alexander dargomyzhsky

[issela-santina]

Rusalka 🤝 Giselle

sadgirl joins a slew of Slavic spirits dedicated to slaughtering the suitors who spurned them

[churchofsatannews]

Vox Satanae - Episode #576: Walpurgisnacht 2024 - 19th-20th Centuries

Vox Satanae – Episode #576 Walpurgisnacht 2024 19th-20th Centuries We hear works by Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Charles Gounod, Modest Mussorgsky, Arrigo Boito, Sir Granville Bantock, Eugen Suchoň, and High Priest Peter H. Gilmore. 142 Minutes – Week of 2024 April 29 Stream Vox Satanae Episode 576. Download Vox Satanae Episode 576.

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Important Russian “Nationalist” composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) is born into a wealthy land-owning Russian family. Mussorgsky began receiving piano lessons from his mother (a trained pianist) at the age of six. He progressed rapidly, and at the age of ten he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to continue their studies (which included music) at an elite school. Mussorgsky's parents had also planned the move to Saint Petersburg so that both their sons would renew a longstanding family tradition of military service, and Mussorgsky was thus duly enrolled in the Cadet School Of The Guards at the age of 13. Unfortunately, this proved to be a brutal environment – indeed, it probably instilled in young Mussorgsky the drinking habits which would ultimately lead him down to the path to terminal alcoholism. (According to another former student, the Head of the Academy at that time "was proud when a cadet returned from leave drunk with champagne.”) Mussorgsky’s considerable skills as a pianist made him popular with his fellow-cadets, however, and he spent many evenings playing popular dances for his new friends. Then, in October 1856, the 17-year-old Mussorgsky met the 22-year-old physician Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887) while both men were serving at a military hospital. Even more portentous was Mussorgsky’s introduction, just a few months later, to Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813 - 1869), who was then the most important Russian composer after Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857). Dargomyzhsky was so impressed with Mussorgsky's pianism that he invited Mussorgsky to begin attending his soirees, and it was there that Mussorgsky also met Cesar Cui (1835 - 1918) and Mily Balakirev (1837 - 1910), and, through Balakirev, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908). Thus was formed the core constituency of the historically important Russian “Nationalist” school of composers known as “The Mighty Five”… PICTURED: A c. 1920s real photo postcard showing the middle-aged Mussorgsky sporting a very solid mullet.

[queenlucythevaliant]

russian opera recs???? please??????? I want to broaden my horizons

I am so excited that you're interested!!! You are in for such a treat. 

I did a write-up of my favorite Russian operas yesterday evening, which is here. I gushed a whole bunch about my faves and recommended a handful of specific tracks on Spotify to get a feel for things. So definitely check that out.

Buuuuut since you've given me another opportunity here-- let's talk about the New Russian School. This is the music of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky-- what they and their characters listened to. 

The New Russian School was a 19th century movement among composers to create a distinctly Russian style of music. It was spearheaded by the Mighty Five, a group of five composers including my beloved Modest Mussorgsky (my top two on the opera post are his work). But they didn't just write operas! They also wrote parlor songs, symphonies, ballets, marches-- you name it. If you want to get a real feel for Russian music, this is where you start. Some highlights:

- All of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is wonderful, but “The Great Gate of Kiev” is just grand and magnificent and magical in all the best ways. I swear, it makes me want to weep for joy.

- "The Field Marshall," part of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, is sung from the perspective of Death riding through a battlefield after a battle. It's everything you want from that evocative premise.

- "Russia," Mily Balakirev is a symphonic piece that's meant to try and encapsulate the Russian identity. It's beautiful: moody in places, sprightly in others, dramatic, languid, mercurial. Surprisingly good study music, somehow? 

- “Islamey” from Balakirev’s Oriental Fantasy is reasonably well known in the West, but it’s so much fun. That’s all I’ve got to say about it. It totally slaps. 

- “The Lark” from A Farewell to Petersburg (also Balakirev) is just so sweet and sad and delicate. It settles my heart so wonderfully.

- Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture is just glorious. It's the sort of music that grows in beauty and hope from its first strains. It's sunrise on Easter and everyone waking up and getting dressed and going to church. It's mounting excitement of Easter morning and the joy of celebrating the Resurrection.

- Parlor music! You know how in Tolstoy novels a character (or several) will sing something at a private party or gathering? That’s this stuff. Alexander Dargomyzhsky’s is some of the best. I quite like “Enchant Me, Enchant” because I can so easily imagine Natasha singing it. “The Old Corporal” is quite good too. Full disclosure, I mostly listen to Dargomyzhsky while thinking about Tolstoy novels ;)

- A wonderful cello nocturn by Alexander Borodin. Mournful, but with moments of joy and lightness. Perfectly balanced. My mom really likes this one.

Oh goodness, Cesar Cui is the last member of the Mighty Five and I can’t think of anything of his that I really love off the top of my head. So sorry Cesar! I should listen to more of your stuff.

-Tchaikovsky came after the Mighty Five, but was definitely a product of the New Russian School and I need to talk about his Sixth Symphony. His Sixth Symphony (called Pathetique) is popular in the West, but not many know the story and significance behind it. Tchaikovsky was coming to the end of his life and old St. Petersburg was coming to the end of its. Pathetique quotes from the Russian Orthodox funeral service. Its last movement incorporates De Profundis, a prayer for the dead. The Symphony is beautiful and mournful and, when it premiered, the curtain fell not to applause but to weeping. The Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich ran up to Tchaikovsky crying "What have you done? It's a requiem, a requiem!" Ya know that scene in the movie Amadeus where Mozart writes his own death mass in bed and then dies? Yeah. Except in a way, this was a requiem for the Russia that died with the revolution as well. Tchaikovsky was a lot like Akhmatova in that he looked at Old Russia with nostalgia before it was even gone.

Bonus: I like bombast. Here's Glinka's Patriotic Song. Glinka predates all these other guys, but he's wonderful and really deserves to be better known in the West. In Russia, he's like their Mozart.

Between this and the opera post, I hope I haven’t overwhelmed anyone. During quarantine, I used to go for drives with my mom and sister basically every day. Occasionally, I played my Russians and my mom’s response was “this makes the pandemic feel a lot more epic, doesn’t it?” 

[teddybasmanov]

Actually, while we're deciding on a playlist, here's a romance that fits pretty much all three of my favourite Jim pairings - Felix/Agent A, Dimi/Malenkee and Elrick/human!listener (I need a name for them):

(And here's a partial version of the same song but the tone is quite different - I like both.)

It's about how even if your relationship is unconventional and may not be recognised by the society - I mean the first line/title is "We weren't married in a church" - you're still freely choosing them and they're real and important to you in part because of that freedom. It's also anecdotally Lenin's favourite romance song.

So, we have a couple of counter-intelligence officers who are loyal to their duty before everything else and who never could even meet each other with real papers; a gangster and his former potential target who go on the run together; and a newly appointed commissar and a former slave building a life and a country together - nothing conventional or universally recognised about any of these.

Translation of the first two strophes (those being sang in the shortened version):

We weren't married in a church,

Not in crowns, not with candles,

No hymns were sung to us,

No wedding ceremonies.

Midnight crowned us

In the middle of a dark forest,

There were witnesses -

Foggy sky and dim stars.

The wild wind sang

And the raven ominous,

Sang the wedding songs.

Stood as guards

Cliffs and abysses,

The bed was made by

Love and freedom

The bed was made by

Love and freedom.

[lesser-known-composers]

Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Chukhon Fantasia, based on Finnish melodies (1867) The USSR Symphony Orchestra Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor

[knightfromthecottage]

ophelia by john everett mallais // rusalka (1855) by alexander dargomyzhsky // hidden things by kim myatt

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Tell me more about Rusalkas! I know they're often considered the "Slavic version of Sirens," but what kinds of unique lore do they have?

(Also *hugs* I hope everything turns out ok)

(mostly gonna translate from Czech Wikipedia)

Okay so the first evidence of the word rusalka being used comes from 16th century East Slavic cultures, and the name most likely comes from the word rusá/rusý = red/ginger (they were often depicted with red hair, in general redheads were targets of many superstitions back then so no surprise there), or derived from the name of a festival called rusalje which they were associated with. They were usually the spirits of young girls who died tragically, drowned or committed suicide, and mostly appear in and near rivers, lakes and swamps. Like sirens they seduce young men and drown them or dance with them until they die of exhaustion, but in some myths they are neutral spirits simply living by the water, dancing and singing songs at night. In some variations of the myth they appear in forests or in fields but they're mostly associated with water.

They are pretty popular in Slavic folklore, art and media, for example there are two operas called Rusalka, one by Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky based on a poem by Pushkin, and one by Antonín Dvořák and is perhaps the most famous Czech opera

[about-life-around-you-2021]

Даргомыжский Александр Сергеевич | Ариозо https://arioszo.ru/dargomyzhsky-alexander-sergeevich/

[oconnormusicstudio]

February 14: On This Day in Music

February 14: On This Day in Music

Happy Valentine’s Day   . 1602 ~ Pier Francesco Cavalli, Italian opera composer . 1813 ~ Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer . 1882 ~ Ignace Friedman, Polish pianist and composer . 1894 ~ Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), The stingy, violin-playing, perennial-39- year-old comedian of radio, television and vaudeville . 1923 ~ Cesare Siepi, Opera basso . 1925 ~ Elliot Lawrence (Broza), Emmy…

[issela-santina]

I will one day talk Dargomyzhsky vs Dvořák re which Rusalka strikes me better but today is not that day

[churchofsatannews]

Vox Satanae - Episode #529: 13th-20th Centuries - Weeks of October 11 and October 18, 2021

Vox Satanae – Episode #529: 13th-20th Centuries – Weeks of October 11 and October 18, 2021

Vox Satanae – Episode #529 13th-20th Centuries This week we hear works by Heinrich von Meißen, Jehan de Lescurel, John Sutton, Jean Maillard, Claudio Saracini, Vincent Lübeck, André Grétry, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Julius Röntgen, and Peter Schat. 134 Minutes – Weeks of October 11 and October 18, 2021 Stream Vox Satanae Episode 529. Download Vox Satanae Episode 529.

[opera-ghosts]

Maria Mikhailovna Kurenko. The forgotten name of the Russian singer.

Nowadays this name doesn't mean much to music lovers.However, in the early 20s of the last century, a reviewer for one of the Kyiv newspapers wrote: “The singer is the best coloratura soprano in Russia. "Nothing is impossible for her, neither technically nor vocally. She sings as easily as she breathes." “Without a doubt, among coloratura sopranos she is a star of the first magnitude.” In 1913, Maria Kurenko graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in solo singing under the famous teacher Umberto Masetti. Soon she made her debut on the stage of the Kharkov Opera in the role of Antonida in Glinka’s opera Ivan Susanin. Then Maria Mikhailovna was a soloist at the Kyiv Opera, and at the turn of the 1910s and 20s she sang at the Bolshoi Theatere and in the famous troupe of Sergei Zimin.

Unfortunately, the singer's artistic career in Soviet Russia was short-lived.In 1923, Kurenko received an invitation from Latvia, and for two seasons she performed there with great success in performances and concerts.Three years later, she went on a grand tour of Europe, after which she was invited to America. Kurenko's very first performance in Los Angeles in the role of Gilda brought the artist stunning success. “The performance of the singer Maria Kurenko, who is completely unknown to our public, was a triumph,” noted the critic for the Daily Times. The singer's popularity in the USA grew very quickly. She performed in the best opera houses, with first-class orchestras, wonderful conductors, and outstanding singers.She was one of a few artists honored to perform at the White House at the invitation of President Roosevelt. Kurenko had creative friendships with many musicians who found themselves in the United States.She was considered the most authoritative interpreter of Igor Stravinsky's vocal works. In the early 1930s, Alexander Grechaninov recorded twelve of his romances with her on gramophone records. Among the admirers of the singer's talent was Sergei Rachmaninov, who considered Maria Mikhailovna to be perhaps the best performer of his romances. Kurenko's chamber concert programs always included works by Russian composers - Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Balakirev, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. She performed Mussorgsky's songs magnificently, which were almost never performed at that time.

[osobypostacieludzie]

Alexander Dargomyzhsky ( Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky, Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Даргомы́жский, Aleksandr Siergiejewicz Dargomyżski ) - rosyjski kompozytor, znany przede wszystkim z twórczości operowej. Dargomyżski rozpoczął naukę gry na fortepianie i skrzypcach, śpiewu i teorii muzycznej w domu rodzinnym; w dziedzinie kompozycji był samoukiem. Pierwsze utwory skomponował mając 11 lat, były nimi utwory fortepianowe i romanse. W 1835 roku spotkał Glinkę, który wywarł znaczący wpływ na zainteresowania i studia kompozytorskie Dargomyżskiego. Około 1838 roku skomponował swoją pierwszą operę Esmeralda, której libretto było adaptacją powieści Victora Hugo Dzwonnik z Notre Dame; opera została wystawiona dopiero w 1847 r. w Moskwie i nie zyskała powodzenia. W 1845 roku rozpoczął pracę nad kolejną operą Rusałka, z librettem będącym adaptacją niedokończonego dramatu Puszkina pod tym samym tytułem. Rusałkę wystawiono po raz pierwszy w 1856 roku w Petersburgu, a jej popularność wzrastała w ciągu następnych lat; wielkim sukcesem było wznowienie opery w 1865 roku. Po 1850 roku Dargomyżski zbliżył się do grupy młodych kompozytorów nazywanej później Potężną Gromadką. Od 1859 był członkiem zarządu Rosyjskiego Towarzystwa Muzycznego, a od 1867 roku – prezesem jego petersburskiego oddziału. W ostatnim okresie życia skomponował trzy utwory symfoniczne: Kozaczek ukraiński, Baba Jaga i Fantazja fińska. Około 1865 roku rozpoczął prace nad swoją ostatnią operą Kamienny gość, z librettem według dramatu Puszkina pod tym samym tytułem; utworu tego nie zdołał jednak ukończyć. Kamiennego gościa wystawiono po raz pierwszy w Petersburgu w 1872 roku, po uzupełnieniu partytury przez Cezara Cui i zinstrumentowaniu całości przez Nikołaja Rimskiego-Korsakowa. Twórczość Dargomyżskiego, objętościowo skromna, jest uważana za istotny łącznik między dorobkiem Glinki a dziełami Potężnej Gromadki. Szczególne zasługi położył w dziedzinie harmoniki, rozwijając chromatykę i wprowadzając skalę całotonową.

[mebwalker]

Dom Juan, "grand seigneur méchant homme"

Dom Juan, “grand seigneur méchant homme”

Don Giovanni by Angela Buscemi www.teatrodimessina.it (Photo credit: Google Images)

In an earlier post on Molière‘s Dom Juan, which was first performed on (1665), I mentioned sources: Tirso de Molina Trickster of Seville, the Stone Guest (1630) and the dramma giocoso. I also wrote that he was a descendant of Bergamo’s Brighella. Finally, I mentioned that Mozart had written an opera on our…

[lesser-known-composers]

Alexander Dargomyzhsky - Na severe dikom - In the Wild North (Im wilden Norden) Orchestra: Chamber Choir Lege Artis