Don Menya

This 10CD box covers the entire range of the repertoire with which Boris Christoff took the world by storm; from his first opera role in La Boheme over the important Verdi roles and his devilish portrayal of Mephisto to the major roles in Russian operas; Christoff took part in no less than 600 performances of Boris Godunov.

In this continuation of his successful series of ‘songs without words' – songs for voice and piano transcribed for cello and piano – Mischa Maisky left the Austro-Germanic repertoire he had previously explored behind and turned to the songs of his motherland in this disc of Russian songs called "Vocalise." For fans of Maisky's earlier discs of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms, no more needed to be said: the same sweetly singing tone, the same warm-hearted phrasing, the same vibrato, portamento and glissando that distinguished Maisky's those discs was fully present here.

As part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series, lyric soprano Camilla Harris makes her recording debut with a programme which interweaves the themes of love, longing and the female muse. Taking Rachmaninov’s melancholic Six Songs, Op. 38 – inspired by the composer’s duo partner and lover, soprano Nina Koshetz – as the initial catalyst, Camilla performs four settings by Liszt on the poetry of Victor Hugo, each redolent of love and longing and with several allusions to a female muse; she also treats us to two little gems: Chère nuit by the French post-Romantic composer Alfred Bachelet and Grieg’s irresistible ‘Ein Traum’ from Sechs Lieder, Op. 48. In 2022, four exceptional recipients of the Academy’s 2020/21 Bicentenary Scholarships scheme – Julie Park, Camilla Harris, Ossian Huskinson and Charlie Lovell-Jones – will each release a new album to coincide with the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary celebrations.

Compiled from ultra-rare dead stock pressed at a Soviet-era vinyl plant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, this first-of-its-kind fully licensed album features a supreme selection of Uzbek disco, Tajik electronic folk, Uyghur guitar licks, Crimean Tatar jazz, Korean brass, and genre-defying styles from Soviet Central Asia.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve, based on a short story by Gogol, centres on the love of the blacksmith Vakula for the rich farmer’s daughter Oksana, who mockingly requires him to obtain for her the Tsarina’s shoes in order to win her hand in marriage. However, evil spirits are on the rampage imperilling their love – a witch on her broomstick gathers the stars and the devil steals the moon. Rimsky-Korsakov blends Christian and pagan elements, Ukrainian folk songs and carols, and atmospheric orchestral interludes in this vivacious and fantastical village romance. This is the disc version of the audiovisual release on 2.110738 and NBD0154V: ‘Sebastian Weigle leads the excellent Frankfurt orchestra and chorus in a spellbinding account of Rimsky-Korsakov’s score’, wrote MusicWeb International. It also won the German Record Critics Award for Quarterly Critics Choice and was a Musicweb International ‘Recommended’ release.

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.

This CD explores the Russian tradition of Lieder and traces its endless refinements, helping us to get to know this centerpiece of Russian culture. These Ukrainian performers are twin sisters and together they have performed many lieder recitals. In August of this year they will perform at the Schleswig Holstein Festival. The Lieder are sung in Russian.