Search - Various Artists :: Songs of Old Russia

Perfecto.

10/12/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am 20 years old Russian and my age speaks for itself. It is not the kind of music I would regularly listen to, however, I am glad I did get to listen to this album. It gave me shivers and tears of nostalgia. This album is a definite retrospect into the enigma of Russian romance, courtship and chivalry. Treasurers of Russian pride and history will have it in their collections."

Undeserved obscurity

Michael Stoken | Highland Park, IL USA | 09/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For "objective" American listeners, this music is corny in sentiment and cheesy as your grandmother's old Brunswick 78's when it comes to arrangements and instrumentation. But they'll be missing the point entirely. First, the anonymous tenor's voice is unfashionably but startlingly sweet. "Sweet" doesn't really cut it these days, as heartbreakingly evidenced by seven out of ten contemporary listeners preferring, in a 'blind" test, Pavarotti to Gigli. Second, the album's title is misleading. These aren't folksongs a la "Volga Boatman", "Kalinka", "Two Guitars", and the rest. This is a selection of the most popular cabaret music of the 1920's and the 1930's, especially the gorgeous tangos of the composer Oskar Strokh, who survived the war only to die in utter obscurity in Riga in 1979. The album represents a rare genre that makes me incredibly frustrated to not have access to the source materials the producers obtained but are so reluctant to credit. HELP!"

The best

Larissa Simontov | Seattle, Wa | 11/09/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"CD doesn't show name of the artist. Peter Lechenko was one of the "white emmigrants". He represent on of the most popular music from 1900-1917 before October Revolution."