Oda Slodbodskaya, the supreme interpreter of Russian Art Song in the mid twentieth century sings Its beautiful here by Sergei Rachmaninov How lovely it is here... Look, far away, The river is a blaze of fire; The meadows lie like carpets of colour The clouds are white. Here there is no one... Here it is silent... Here is only God and I, The flowers, the old pine tree, And you, my dream! Rachmaninoff and his wife were on their honeymoon when he composed the work, which, not surprisingly, he also dedicated to her. Moreover, he had recently recovered from a depression caused by the disastrous 1897 premiere of his Symphony No. 1, which undermined his confidence and ability to compose until the appearance in 1901 of his ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2. This was obviously a blissful time in his life, then, true to his nature, Rachmaninoff was moved to write music here about romance and passion, leaving out the sunshine and merriment he must also have felt. The song features one of the composers most soaring, beautiful vocal melodies that would not have been out of place in a slow movement of one of his concertos or symphonies. The accompaniment is appropriately subdued and just as romantic as the vocal line. The text, by G. Galina, describes a pastoral scene where young lovers have come to be alone with nature and themselves. This lovely song typically has a duration of just over two minutes. Oda Slobodskaya was born in Vilnius, then part of Russia, and studied with the formidable Natalia Iretskaya, herself a pupil of Pauline Viardot Garcia. She sang major roles in the Mariinsky theatre St Petersburg but after the Revolution and subsequent famine, she left Russia with Fyodor Chaliapin when he brought his own opera company to the west. She went on to sing major roles at Covent Garden, La Scala Milan and other major houses. She eventually married and settled in London where she enjoyed great success as both a concert and opera singer. She continued to give entertaining recitals of Russian songs well into her seventies and was a witty and characterful narrator of Peter and the Wolf.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:35:55 +0000
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