Ondine: Dmitri Hvorostovsky — Shostakovich & Liszt — Ivari Ilja, Piano (CD)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Ondine
• Vocalist: Dmitri Hvorostovsky (baritone)
• Pianist: Ivari Ilja
• Composers: Dmitri Shostakovich; Franz Liszt
• Works: Shostakovich — Suite on Poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1974), Op. 145a; Liszt — 3 Sonetti del Petrarca, S. 270a (1st version)
• Release Year: 2015
• UPC: 761195127728
• Catalogue Number: ODE 1277-2
• Genre: Classical / Vocal / Art Song

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: 58 minutes 53 seconds
• Languages sung: Russian (Shostakovich), Italian (Liszt)
• English notes enclosed; lyrics with English translation
• Manufactured in Germany
• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed

Overview

This is late, serious Hvorostovsky — the great Siberian baritone in two song cycles about art, mortality, and love, partnered by pianist Ivari Ilja. It's a recital that plays to exactly the qualities that made his voice unmistakable: the dark, even tone, the long line, the gravity.

The centrepiece is Shostakovich's Suite on Poems by Michelangelo, Op. 145a, one of the composer's last works, written in 1974, the year before his death. Setting Michelangelo's own verses on creativity, exile, death, and immortality, it's music of stark, late-period concentration — a meditation by one great artist on the words of another, both near the end of their lives. Hvorostovsky's voice suits its weight ideally.

The Liszt cycle lightens the air. The 3 Sonetti del Petrarca, heard here in Liszt's first version, set Petrarch's sonnets of romantic longing — more familiar to many in their solo-piano form, but originally conceived, as here, for voice and piano. They show a different side of the partnership: lyrical, ardent, Italianate.

A disc for admirers of Hvorostovsky, lovers of Russian song and the art-song repertoire, and anyone drawn to Shostakovich's haunted final music.

Interesting Facts

• Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962–2017) shot to international fame by winning the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
• Shostakovich wrote the Michelangelo Suite in 1974, the year before he died; it is among his final completed works.
• The suite sets Michelangelo's own poetry, with the Renaissance master reflecting on art, love, and mortality.
• Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets exist in several versions; this recording uses the lesser-heard first version, S. 270a.
• Pianist Ivari Ilja, an Estonian, was a frequent recital partner of Hvorostovsky in his later career.
• The disc includes full sung texts with English translations, valuable for following the Russian and Italian poetry.

Track Listing

• Tracks 1–11: Shostakovich — Suite on Poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1974), Op. 145a — 39:40
• Tracks 12–14: Liszt — 3 Sonetti del Petrarca, S. 270a (1st version) — 19:04

(Total runtime 58:53. Individual song titles and timings aren't legible in the photos — send a clear image of the track list and I'll add them.)

Publishers

℗ & © 2015 Ondine Oy, Helsinki. Manufactured in Germany. English notes enclosed; lyrics with English translation.

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