Search - Georgevskaya, Krotkoff :: Treasury of Russian Gypsy Songs

A wonderful find!

YARON HALLIS | Australia | 02/18/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"well, I profoundly disagree with the 1st review of this CD; this singer's voice is absolutely devastating (in a good way!), with restrained and quite beautiful solo guitar accompaniment. This is an authentic & starkly beautiful recording!"

Masterful

Zdzislaw Meglicki | Indiana, USA | 12/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a masterful presentation of Russian "Gypsy" Romance and other popular Russian "fakeloric" music of the late XIXth and the early XXth centuries. Most of it was written for the salons of Russian intelligentsia. Often, it evoked Gypsy imagery, because it was a romantically fashionable subject at the time, not only in Russia, cf. "Carmen" by Bizet--hence the label.



Both artists, Marusia Georgevskaya, vocals, and the guitarist, Sergei Krotkoff, give a wonderful, unsurpassed and most authentic performance. The guitar accompaniment is beautifully harmonized with sometimes surprising key changes and rich counterpoint. Georgevskaya's deeply emotional interpretation and rich alto voice can be compared to Edith Piaf--she is so good.



Whereas what's on the CD is first class, what's on paper is less so. There is nothing here about the artists, and other than somewhat inaccurate English translations of the lyrics, nothing about the genre, songs and their authors. And, yes, most of them had authors. For example, the lyrics of "Ochi Chernye" were written by Evgenii Grebenka (1812-1848) in 1843, and were set to the melody of Florian Hermann's "Valse Hommage" by Gerdel in 1884. "Utro Tumannoye" was written by Vladimir Abaza (1861-1918) to the lyrics of Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), "Serdtse" was written by Isaak Dunayevsky (1900-1955) to the lyrics of Vasily Lebedev-Kumach (1898-1949), "Akh, Eti Chornye Glaza" was written in the 1920s by a Latvian pianist and composer Oscar Strok, the acclaimed "King of Tango", "Yamshchik, Ne Goni Loshadei" was written by Yasha Feldman to the lyrics of Nikolai Ritter, and the famous "Kalinka" was written by Ivan Larionov (1830-1889) in 1860 for a theater show in Saratov.



This 1992 CD reissue of a 1961 LP recording by Monitor Records is becoming a rarity, so grab it while you have the chance. I have seen the CDs still distributed by Smithsonian Global Sound.



Sergei Krotkoff (also spelled Krotkov) was probably the Russian emigre--according to Prof. Alexandrov of Yale University--who performed in the early 1920s in the clubs of Fyodor Tomas in Instanbul, before moving to Paris in 1926. There he met Marusia Georgevskaya, a niece of Evlogy Georgievsky, the Western Europe metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. They immigrated to the United States in 1957, where they continued to perform in exclusive Russian tea-rooms and clubs of New York."

Excellent collection

Arsell Potasky | Oconto Falls, Wisconsin | 09/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am an American who's taught college level Russian many years. I stumbled across this on CD 17 years ago in one of those discount bins. I bought it on a lark not knowing what it was. My wife (who is Russian) fell in love with it immediately, as did our children. This is a fantastic record. Marusiya Gregorievskaya's contralto voice is perfectly suited for these songs, and Sergei Krotkoff's guitar playing is perfect. If you have an interest in Russian folk music I couldn't recommend this record more highly."