No question about the top choice in Radio 3's Building a Library this time - and don't read on if you still have to hear it on the BBC iPlayer - which, if you live in the UK only, I'm told, applies for the next five days - and don't want to know the outcome. We're not allowed to say 'winner', and usually I end with two or three versions with which I'd be equally happy for different reasons. But tenor Georgi Nelepp (pictured above) would be enough to stake out the 1952 recording of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades as easily the best.
His sensitivity, even production, characterisation and fabulous diction leave Atlantov - a more heldentenory Hermann on no less than three recordings, if you like that sort of thing, which I did at the end of the first scene and throughout the last - Grigorian (for Gergiev) and the rather interesting Peter Gougaloff (for Rostropovich) way behind. Grigorian, by the way, wore a powdered wig like the one Nelepp sports below in the very traditional Mariinsky Queen of Spades I saw in St. Petersburg, but was allowed to take it off, I seem to remember, for the filming, as it had turned him rather into the Frog Footman of Lewis Carroll's Duchess.
Decisive in the choice, though, was Melik-Pashayev's conducting: incredibly nuanced, getting superb articulation from the Bolshoi Orchestra and pacing unerringly. For once, the Pastoral of the Faithful Shepherdess that falls like a true 18th century intermezzo halfway through the opera doesn't outstay its welcome. Other recordings may have even better Tomskys and Yeletskys (Leiferkus and Hvorostovsky for Ozawa), but none comes close overall.
If you want the classic, you'll have to buy the 60-CD Tchaikovsky Edition, but it's to be found, I'm told, in some places for less than a pound a disc. There are other operatic rarities - The Oprichnik, The Maid of Orleans, The Slippers and The Enchantress are all here - though inevitably the performances are variable. I've just been listening to the Ansermet versions of the ballets which, though often cut, have such esprit.
Briefly, then, more Russian stuff this week. Tonight I interview the Pacifica Quartet (pictured above by Anthony Parmelee) in a Wigmore pre-performance event before the launch of their Shostakovich cycle; and next Saturday I plague the airwaves again, talking to Andrew McGregor about Weinberg's The Passenger before a Radio 3 relay of the Bregenz premiere. But the highlight of the week is somehow bound to be the two-concert appearance at the Festival Hall of the world's greatest living conductor, Claudio Abbado, with the world's greatest players, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
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We enjoyed the broadcast very much but a 60 cd set would gather a lot of dust on our shelves I think, and I'm not sure 1950s recording quality would sustain me however good the performance. I gave myself a Christmas present of harmonia mundi's 50th anniversary box set some years ago (29 discs) and have barely scratched the surface although it contains many unheard treasures (including Hildegard's Laudes et Vepres pour la fete de sainte Ursule). Claire would play Onegin repeatedly if nothing else at least.
And on the subject I heard a lovely Peter Ustinov anecdote today (which I suspect you know). Asked at school to name a Russian composer he wrote Rimsky-Korsakov, but was told this was wrong: the correct answer was Tchaikovsky.
And I think Claire might be disappointed, because the Onegin and Iolanta look like - though I might be pleasantly surprised - way below the rest, quality wise. Odd mix of classic Russian performances with budget Novosibirskans.
Anyway, the latest I heard was that you could get all this on Amazon Spain for 53 odd euros...
Do you know Weill's patter-song 'Tchaikovsky and other Russian composers' from Lady in the Dark, immortalised by Danny Kaye? I performed this at Charleston's Quentin Follies, with what degree of success I can't say, but I did memorise it all and get it right.
I just received the CDs of The Enchantress in the mail and am looking forward very much to what will be my first hearing ever of the opera. I so wish we had a far greater variety of Russian opera here than we get. Of Rimsky, virtually nothing. Borodin, maybe once every two to three decades.
The MET has at least enlarged Mussorgsky to Khovanshchina, and hosted many of Maestro Gergiev's productions of Prokofiev, "lesser" Tchaikovsky, etc. But Rimsky -- what's to be afraid of, the works are gorgeous!
Ah, but it IS possible to hear the BoL segment for 7 days in the US, too (there are other things we can't get related to BBC3 and the magazine, but this one, we can, hooray!).
I look forward to your reports on the upcoming events you name, and am delighted to report from here that I finally have the Weingberg concerti you recommended in hand. Hard not to fall in love with the Fantasia for Cello, I would think. Thanks so much for the recommendation. (Have also finished Summer Will Show. Curious book. I'd love to know the back story on it.)
Have to say, Will, that The Enchantress is at the bottom of the pile of Tchaik operas for me - it's from his Opera By Numbers phase, but it does have a good mother-son duet. And I wonder which recording you're referring to. The one in the Brilliant box has Nelepp again, Samosud conducting, so it should make the best possible case. We had a concert performance in the RFH conducted by Gergiev with Gorchakova and Diadkova in the cast.
That's good to hear about iPlayer access in the States, Sue. I'm guessing from the parenthetics and the choice adjectives that Summer Will Show didn't exactly bowl you over. I'm still going to read it, but hope it doesn't put you off trying at least Lolly Willowes.
I have heard the Tchaikovsky (and Other Russians) song but I don't really remember it. I can only recall "The chalice from the palace" from The Court Jester. One to indulge in with the children as soon as possible I feel, and other great Danny Kaye works.
Have you tried "The Elements" which is Daniel Radcliffe's party piece?
Funnily enough, Lehrer's 'Periodic Table' (is that 'The Elements'? ) was the one I had lined up for the next Quentin Follies - but, alas, plugs have been pulled on the whole splendidly ad hoc shebang by the present dour administration at Charleston.
I grew up on 'Tubby the Tuba', which I still think is the best possible introduction to the orchestra (shorter than Peter and the Wolf...)
Definitely doesn't put me off other Warner books. While it's true I didn't find the book entirely gripping, I was fascinated with both her choice of subject and the perspective from which she chose to write. The Don Juan sounds fascinating; I just hope I'll be able to lay my hands on it at some point. In the meantime, I will try Lolly Willowes.
David, I enjoyed the BaL very much, but didn't want to go down the 60 CD route. Howver, I found the same cast, and Melik-Pashaev, supposedly from 1949-50 (I think you said 1952 for the one in the Brilliant box) on amazon.fr for less than £20 - 2 CDs. Is this the same recording (the timings seem the same)? Either way, I'm delighted with it, and very glad to have had the recommendation in a work I didn't know, in a performance I may well have passed by.
I'll check that out, Donald, but assuming it's a studio performance, and the same cast, it ought to be the same. The date suggests it might be a live performance, though. More anon.
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