Firma Melodiya presents an album dedicated to the anniversaries of two great figures of Russian culture of the 20th century – Sergei Yesenin (1895–1925) and Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998).

“Once … I met a poet I knew, and he spent a long time reading Yesenin for me. That’s when Yesenin’s verses imprinted themselves on my soul. When I got back home, I could not fall asleep… The music came suddenly. … That was how I wrote my first song to Yesenin’s text which later became a core song in my Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin. The rest of the songs were composed during two weeks, all at once”.

The premiere of the Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin took place in 1956, in Moscow and was a new milestone in the composer’s career properly unveiling his original style and subtle feeling for poetry to the public. Soon after completion of the vocal and symphonic Poem, the composer came up with the cycle My Father Is a Peasant for tenor, baritone and piano, where Yesenin’s images of Russian nature and scenes of country life were expressed by means of chamber vocal lyric music.

Wooden Russia, a small cantata for tenor, men’s choir and orchestra, was composed in 1964 and had an epigraph taken from Yesenin’s verses “Russia, my wooden Russia!”. The poet’s four poems recreate an image of old patriarchal Russia while the last lines of the final movement herald its tragic demise.

Georgy Sviridov’s cantatas set to the poetry of Sergei Yesenin are performed by the Republican Academic Choir led by Alexander Yurlov and such luminaries of domestic conducting art as Yuri Temirkanov and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

The chamber cycle is sung by Alexei Maslennikov, an outstanding interpreter of Sviridov’s music, who is accompanied by the author.

Alexei Masiennikov (Ten), Georgy Sviridov (Pno), Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Dir), The Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad State Philharmonic Society, Yuri Temirkanov (Dir)

Contents
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: L. My Desolate Land
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: II. Winter Sings
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: III. Where Yellow Nettle Grows
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: IV. Harvest
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: V. St. John's Eve
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: VI. St. Lohn's Eve (Continued)
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: VII.1919
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: VIII. Peasant Children
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: IX. I Am The Last Poet Of The Countryside
Poem To The Memory Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Choir And Orchestra: X. The Sky Is Like A Bell
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: I. Sleigh
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: II. Russia Shines In My Heart
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: III. Birch Tree
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: IV. Recruits
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: V. Singing To The Accordion
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: VI. In The Evening
My Father Is A Peasant, Cycle To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Baritone And Piano: VII. The Nightingale Has A Good Song
Wooden Russia, Small Cantata To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Men's Choir And Orchestra: I. Farewell My Native Forest
Wooden Russia, Small Cantata To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Men's Choir And Orchestra: II. Swamps And Marches
Wooden Russia, Small Cantata To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Men's Choir And Orchestra: III. I Am A Wretched Pilgrim
Wooden Russia, Small Cantata To The Poetry Of Sergei Yesenin For Tenor, Men's Choir And Orchestra: IV. Don't Look For Me In God