FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £35!

Rachmaninov - The Miserly Knight         | Brilliant Classics 9096

Rachmaninov - The Miserly Knight

New Item

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 9096

Barcode: 5029365909624

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 26th October 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Mikhail Guzhov
Vsevolod Grivnov
Andrei Baturkin
Borislav Molchanov
Vitaly Efanov
Russian State Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Valery Polyansky

Works

Rachmaninov, Sergei

The Miserly Knight, op.24

Artists

Mikhail Guzhov
Vsevolod Grivnov
Andrei Baturkin
Borislav Molchanov
Vitaly Efanov
Russian State Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Valery Polyansky

About

Rachmaninov’s relationship with the opera house is an interesting one. As early as 1888 he sketched out an operatic project called Esmerelda, based on Victor Hugo’s poem Notre Dame de Paris. He also composed two insertion arias for Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov – an old tradition that went back 200 years or so, with Mozart being a prime example of a composer who added arias of his own composition to the operas of colleagues. The first completed opera was The Miserly Knight, to Rachmaninov ’s own libretto, based very closely on a Pushkin poem. It is in one act, as indeed are his other two operas, Aleko and Francesca da Rimini.

At the time of completing his first opera, Rachmaninov had just emerged from a season of conducting opera at the Bolshoi, and had also visited Bayreuth where he saw Der Ring, Parsifal and Der fliegende Holländer. Wagner’s music dramas left a huge impression on him, and The Miserly Knight reflects the influence of the German composer: no arias, leitmotif, and through-composed. As there are no ensemble numbers, the orchestra’s role is very important in this work, and like Mussorgsky and Wagner, Rachmaninov uses monologues which are almost sprechgesang in places.

The Miserly Knight is a rarity in the opera house as it is a short work, but it has been revived recently at Glyndebourne, and it has all the hallmarks of Rachmaninov’s other music, especially The Isle of the Dead and the Second Symphony.

Valery Polyansky here is at his most punchy and committed. Unexpurgated, this tale of monetary obsession makes disturbing listening.’ - Gramophone

Recording made in 2003.

Cast:
- Mikhail Guzhov: The Baron
- Vsevolod Grivnov: Albert
- Andrei Baturkin: The Duke
- Borislav Molchanov: Jewish Moneylender
- Vitaly Efanov: Servant

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here