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Index of Singers
- Indiana University Press
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271 Index of Singers The following is an index to the singers listed in the preceding pages. Only the singers of Rachmaninoff’s songs are listed, not those of other composers who set the same lyrics, nor of intrumentalists who have recorded transcriptions of Rachmaninoff’s songs. The information given for each singer—nationality, voice type, and dates—will identify the singer; more information can be found in Baker’s, Wikipedia, and other reference sources. In some entries, the accompanist and year of performance are provided. For various reasons, a decision was made to provide only an index of singers in this volume, rather than an annotated discography of the recordings, as one finds in my book Tchaikovsky’s Complete Songs. Much has changed in the intervening years. Older records that were once very rare are being remastered and reissued on CD. Newer recordings are often repackaged and reissued with new record numbers. Above all, however, the availability of recordings, both individual songs and complete albums, has grown to include downloads from Web sites such as iTunes or Amazon. Many live performances can also be heard (and often seen) on YouTube. This abundance of material, readily accessible on the Web, should satisfy the needs of all the readers of this book, singers, scholars, and music-lovers, except for those passionate discophiles whose interests take them to rare LPs and 78-rpm recordings that exist only in libraries and archives. Information about these historical materials, including libraries where they can be found, is available in the Library of Congress Catalog, WorldCat, and other library catalogs on the Web. Information about Russian singers and recordings before 1917 can be found in Ianin and OP. For the beginner there is fortunately a splendid recording of the complete songs of Rachmaninoff sung by the Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström, with Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano. (This set, originally released on LPs by Decca throughout the 1970s, is available on three CDs and also as individual downloads.) The obvious disadvantage of the Söderström-Ashkenazy set is that, all songs being sung by a single singer, many of them have been transposed from the original keys. Another excellent set, which maintains the original keys by distributing the songs among the appropriate voice types, features Joan Rodgers (soprano), Maria Popescu (mezzo-soprano), Alexandre Naoumenko (tenor), and Sergei Leiferkus (baritone), all with Howard Shelley at the piano. This set, recorded and originally released on the Chandos label in the 1990s, is available on three CDs and as individual downloads. Either of these compilations can be used as a reference set or starting point from which to explore the many other great and even greater performances of individual songs by other artists. Among the finest individual recordings of Rachmaninoff’s songs, which no one should neglect, are some by the older generation, including Alexander Kipnis, Jennie Tourel, Sergei Lemeshev (especially the 1947-1950 recordings with Abram Makarov on the Aquarius label), and selected recordings made late in professional life by Nina Koshetz, Maria Kurenko, and Oda Slobodskaya. Exemplary Rachmaninoff interpreters of the near past and present include Zara Dolukhanova, Pavel Lisitsian, Boris Christoff, Irina Arkhipova, Nicolai Gedda, Valentina Levko, Elisabeth Söderström, Sergei Leiferkus , Ewa Podleś, Joan Rodgers, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The significance of these and other outstanding performances is in many cases mentioned with the discussion of individual songs 272 Abdrazakov, Askar. Russian bass, born 1969. • Song 34. Aleksandrovich, Aleksandr. Russian tenor, 1881–after 1955. • Song 45. Amaize, Odekhiren. American bass-baritone, born 1953. • Songs 1, 10, 13, 30, 33, 39, 48, 59, 73. Ameling, Elly. Dutch soprano, born 1934. • Song 32. Anderson, Marian. American contralto, 1897–1993. • Songs 12, 14 (in English). Franz Rupp, piano, William Primrose, viola, 1941. Andreyeva-Delmas, Lyubov. Russian mezzo-soprano, 1886–1954 (see OP 1, 26). • Song 19. Ariè, Raffaele. Bulgarian bass, 1922–1988. • Song 34. Wilfred Parry, piano, 1954. Arkhipova, Irina. Russian mezzo-soprano, 1925–2010. • Songs 12, 13, 17, 20, 22, 38, 39. John Wustman, piano, 1970. • Songs 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29, 37, 42, 45, 56, 58, 66. Ivari Ilja, piano, 1981. Asawa, Brian. American countertenor, born 1966. • Songs 12, 22, 30, 76, 79 (with orchestra). Atlantov, Vladimir. Russian tenor, born 1939. • Songs 10, 12, 25, 28, 32, 37, 45, 55, 61. Baillie, Isobel. Scottish soprano, 1895–1983. • Song 38, 56 (in English). Bandrowska-Turska, Ewa. Polish soprano, 1894–1979. • Songs 38, 40. Barber, Terry. American countertenor. Recorded 1998. • Song 76. Battle...