If this CD is representative of a school of singing then the qualities of artistocracy and passion inherent in Russian singing are vibrantly alive. Blessedly the voices are free from vibrato although they are male and vibrato was always less of an issue with men than with Slavonic sopranos. The songs cover a considerable span of territory. Good to find Guriliov and Varlamov, Sviridov, Gavrilin and Tcherepnin in company with Rachmaninov, Medtner, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Dargomizhky. There is not a single clinker in the collection.
Highlights are plentiful from which to choose.
The Song of the Flea famously hammed up by Chaliapin is done with gusto and taste by Gavrilov. The dream is given with the Puccinian Italianate passion we know from Rachmaninov s opera Francesca da Rimini. When the day reigns contains plenteous reminders of the composer s famous first piano concerto. To your snow-white bosom. Rachmaninov makes serious sport of Beethoven s fifth symphony s fate motif in The Destiny.