With Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943), one usually thinks immediately of his piano concertos and preferably the third, which is regularly a showpiece at the Queen Elisabeth Competition. But Rachmaninov also composed beautiful songs, albeit rarely without some dramatic undertone. The songs that Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian and Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas have recorded are therefore rather small opera scenes than purely lyrical chamber music. In the first song – which also gives the cd its title – "Dissonance" the powerful dramatic voice of Asmik Grigorian immediately stands out. She pulls you into the fate of estrangement and the hopeful longing for the beloved. The usually short songs are a pure kaleidoscope of feelings related to love, of course mainly the negative ones. In the third song "I Wait for You" it is the feverish waiting for the beloved, while a song like "What Happiness" evokes a character that is mad with love. Touching is the prayer for a little child "You Are Like a Flower". There is remembrance of love, an attempt to relive it whether or not in dreams. There is longing for love, unbearable pain that even makes one long for death (as in "How Much I Suffer"), but also hope for comfort and melancholic daydreaming, as in "Sing Not, My Beautiful" on a text by Alexander Pushkin. It is a melancholic song, one of the most beautiful songs of the recording, which recalls the letter scene from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugen Onegin, composed to a text by Pushkin. All the songs are composed to texts by Russian poets/poetesses of the 19th century, so high romanticism.
The voice of Asmik Grigorian is simply enchanting and so variable in vocal nuance that every emotion receives its appropriate expressivity without sounding forced. She has a dizzying high register that never becomes shrill. After all the passion and pain, she also convinces equally in the ideally chosen song that closes the series: "We Shall Find Rest" (text by Anton Chekov). A soft ending that comes across as touching. The texts of the songs are in the cd booklet not in Russian (perhaps somewhat a pity), only in French and English. The content is therefore clear.
Her pianist Lukas Geniušas achieves what he promises in the cd booklet: "Although the album is called 'Dissonance', as a reference to one of the songs from op. 34, and despite all the 'inner conflicts' that characterize these songs, our duo is in complete harmony". He sets the appropriate accents to the range of emotions that the singer performs.
We can best imagine this singer as a fantastic actress on an opera stage. Her flawless high register combined with expressivity makes her an ideal verismo performer. That is what she is, moreover, for two performances in May of the production of Fedora by Umberto Giordano which premieres from Sunday April 3 in Frankfurt.
A recording that deserves a maximum of stars. A cd to "listen to with your heart", says Asmik Grigorian. Completely agree.
- WHAT: Dissonance Songs by Sergei Rachmaninov
- Who: Asmik Grigorian, soprano, Asmik Grigorian, soprano
- LABEL: Alpha 796
Preview: JPC.de