Andrew Clements 

Rachmaninov: Songs review – complete survey by seven young singers

Seven young singers contribute to a distinguished collection of Rachmaninov's complete songs, writes Andrew Clements
  
  


After he fled Russia following the revolution in 1918, Rachmaninov composed no more songs. Therefore, all that there are – 73 settings stretching between his Op 4 and Op 38 – fit comfortably on three CDs. Only a handful of them crop up at all regularly in recital programmes here, but it's still a surprise that this collection is the first complete survey to appear on disc since the superb Chandos series from the 1990s with Joan Rodgers and Sergei Leiferkus.

This collection, though, runs its predecessor close. Iain Burnside has shared out the songs between seven young singers from Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania. The two sopranos, Ekaterina Siurina and Evelina Dobraceva, are sharply contrasted, the first light and lyric, the second more dramatic. And, while the tenor, Daniil Shtoda, is more variable, sometimes making a bit of a meal of his more demanding songs, the baritone Andrei Bondarenko, who won the song prize at Cardiff Singer of the World in 2011, is a delight with his honeyed, even tone and faultless phrasing.

Burnside accompanies with his usual tact and intelligence. As a whole, the set is a very distinguished piece of work.

 

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