Rachmaninov: Monna Vanna, Act I (unfinished opera) & Songs

Isokoski, Soile, Moscow Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Students Choir and Opera Soloists

ODE 1249-2

Ondine releases a new recording of Sergei Rachmaninov's (1873-1943) rarely heard unfinished opera Monna Vanna. In this recording the opera is performed on a newer edition by Gennadi Belov and conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, an iconic artist for many decades and an expert in Russian music. Second part of this disc consists of seven songs by Rachmaninov (including the hauntingly beautiful Vocalise), featuring, as Ashkenazy's personal wish, the Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski accompanied on the piano by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Rachmaninov wrote the 1st Act of his Monna Vanna opera in 1907 while writing some of his major works: the Symphony No. 2 and Piano Sonata No. 1. It was the only major score that the composer took with him into his exile in the USA after the 1917 revolution. However, after learning that the libretto rights for the play in the meantime had been given to French composer Henri Février, Rachmaninov gave up the work and upon his death the opera fragment fell into oblivion. The work was finally premiered in New York in 1984. The opera, based upon a play by Maurice Maeterlinck, is performed in the recording by the Moscow Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Students Choir and Opera Soloists. This is a premiere recording of the opera sung in Russian, the language in which Rachmaninov intended it to be performed.

CD x 1

Ondine

8/19/14

761195124925