Program
Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998)
“Russia Cast Adrift”, a cycle for voice and piano to the lyrics by Sergei Yesenin (1976–1977)
Alexey Sioumak’s version (b. 1976)
for soloist and chamber ensemble (2022)
Performers:
Andrey Nemzer – countertenor
Elena Morozova – reciter
musicAeterna Orchestra soloists
Olga Vlasova – conductor
Nina Vorobyeva – director
Details
The vocal cycle “Russia Cast Adrift” is one of Sviridov’s most significant music works composed to the poems by Sergei Yesenin. The selection of texts for the cycle revealed to the listeners unfamiliar Yesenin — a mystic, a religious thinker. Upon Yesenin’s lines, Sviridov wrote his own poem about Russia with a deep philosophical basis, a poetic-archaic sound and a cut-through movement from landscape lyrics through dramatic collisions to the anthemic finale.
Sviridov conceived the cycle “Russia Cast Adrift” as a symphonic opus and insisted on the genre definition of “poem”, but he never got the chance to do the orchestration. This task was completed by one of the leading composers of the 40-year-old generation Alexey Sioumak, who rearranged Sviridov’s cycle for the chamber ensemble.