VA- Russian Folk Songs

I was hesitant to post this given the influx of foreign records two weeks ago(plus the general unintended focus on international stuff this month) and the fear that this would sound too much like earlier posted stuff.  However, I find that once something is in the rotation, it is hard for me to deter much.  So here is this that I bought for a fiver.  No sure why I paid so much for this but there we are.  

Again, this will sound like ancient history when I read this but saw Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins last night at Jones Hall. I posted the record with Weill’s wife Lotta Lenya some time ago on this blog.  Anyway, it was a pretty good production. Vocals were in English so I was able to follow the loose story.  The vocals for Anna were handled by Storm Large while the Greek/family chorus was performed by the ensemble Hudson Shad.

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This was the last collaboration between Weill and text writer Bertolt Brecht.  As a side note, given that the original production had a focus on dance, Brecht, a Marxist, felt that ballet was the “most bourgeois of art forms’ and was not terribly hip to work on it.  However, Marxists need to eat to , so Brecht went to work, wrote the words, got paid, and split.  I found it odd that Brecht would write so much about southern places such as Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama without really setting foot in these places.

The conductor, who I believe was Canadian was Bramwell Tovey.  I like watching the conductors.  They look like mad scientists at times.  But back to the point, was a very fine performance.

So back to this, he we have a collection of folk songs from Apon Records.  Most of these feature vocals, both in solo and the occasional chorus.  Not much information to be gleaned from the records but there is at least a translation of the titles into English.  Lidia Ruslanova, Pavel Lisitsian, ad I. Petrov handle the solo work.  As for the choruses, they are credited to Alexandrov, Piatnitsky, Ural, and Voronezh ensembles.  Alright record.  Typical Russian folk. Lot of accordion and balalaikas.

For a sample, I really like “Valenki Da Valenki/ Old Winter Boots” and “Akh Utushka/ You Little Duck” but ultimately went with “Kamarinskaya” which is a pretty traditional Russian folk dance. Ok, I am going to throw in “You Little Duck” for good measure.

$5 was a bit step but the record is good enough.  Satisfactory.

Walt Disney Presents- Peter and The Wolf/ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

I got this for the Peter and the Wolf side.  The other side, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, conducted by Leopold Stokowski will go unmentioned for the most part during this blog.  This was $1.

Peter and The Wolf was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid and one of my favorite pieces of music. Sergei Prokofiev wrote the work in 1936 after being commissioned by the Central Children’s Theater in Moscow to write a symphony for kids.  The point of the work was to a)introduce kids to musical instruments and b) illustrate the virtues of vigilance, bravery, and resourcefulness.  Each character is given its own instrument and theme.  The work proved to be quite popular and has been adapted many time, most notably perhaps, the 1946 Walt Disney cartoon this album is taken from.

Narrated by Sterling Holloway, this is a pretty straight adaptation of the work with some slight differences.  The character’s all have names except for the wolf.  That is kind of messed up.  Maybe if he had a name, he wouldn’t be so vicious.  In the Disney version, the Duck turns out to be alive at the end. For a sample. I went with the last part of the work. It features a lot of the character themes as well as the hunter’s music (which is among my favorite) and a triumphant end theme for Peter.

Satisfactory.

 

Some Russian Folk Song Album

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This record was originally $2 but the guy at Half-Priced Books gave it to me at a dollar as there was no way of really knowing what it was. He asked me if I knew. I said no but at two dollars, I was willing to roll the dice. We both agreed that it was probably Russian Folk Music.

Which it was. And quite descent folk music at that. I know nothing about this record (other than it was released in 1976) or who recorded it as everything on it is in Cyrillic. It does contain a good selection of folk tunes including Katrusha and Kalinka. There are other songs which I have heard before but do not know the names. But they are quite standard Russian folk songs.DSCN0998

This album is in great shape and still has the sleeve. Only 30% of the American albums I buy can claim this.

I posted an instrumental version of Kalinka before but I am doing it again, as it is the most famous Russian folk song and the vocals are very impressive. To make up for this double dipping, I am posting another example as well. Both feature bird whistles, which I assume is a prominent feature of Russian folk Music.

I will give this my Top Rating as it greatly delivers to me both great Russian folk music, an economic value, and a story about its purchase.