Bach in Other Languages
Discussions

Russian language Bach?

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (March 20, 2006):
Whilst I have listened to a fair amount of Bach in English, both in complete MP recordings, at least two and 1/2, counting the Bernstein as a half:-) (on one of which I hope insha'allah to post a report later) and in several cantata recordings by Ferrier on LPs (seems only the Ferrier arias are available on CD), I do not believe I have ever heard Bach in other languages than German and English. Now the only reason I bring this up is not to be an obscurantist. I firmly believe that great artists perform vocal music better in their own languages. This is my experience with opera; most non-French singers doing French opera are problematic whilst some of these doing French opera in German (as was the norm for a very long time) give us magnificent performances. This is my generalized statement. I do have a very specific person in mind. I recently heard Maria Maksakova doing the Wesendonck-Lieder of Richard Wagner in her native Russian under the great conductor Golovanov. To me these are the most affecting performance of this work which I have heard.

So the question is whether there is any Bach in Russian and whether Aryeh has a page dedicated to "wrong language" Bach. I belive that I have run across a Swedish MP while looking at various pages.

Aryeh Oron wrote (March 20, 2006):
[To Yoël L. Arbeitman] Almost 10 days passed since your message and none of our Russian members has answered your questions.

Bach in English:
The issue of Bach in English has been discussed several times.
See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/English.htm

Bach in Russian,
Although some Russian conductors, as Barshai and Sondeckis have recorded Bach's vocal works, I am not sure if any of these was recorded in Russian. See:
Barshai: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Barshai.htm
Sondeckis: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Sondeckis.htm

There is a possibility that the following album was recorded in Russian:
http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=34188&genreid=
I do not have the album at my disposal, neither do I know further details. Therefore it is not listed yet at the BCW.

Bach in other languages:
SMP in Swedish: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV244-Rec2.htm [21]
SMP in Dutch: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV244-Rec8.htm [113]

I do not recall of any others.

Chris Stanley wrote (March 20, 2006):
Aryeh Oron wrote:
< There is a possibility that the following album was recorded in Russian: http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=34188&genreid=
I do not have the album at my disposal, neither do I know further details. Therefore it is not listed yet at the BCW. >
The link is to a recording of St Matthew's Passion in German on the Great Hall label. You can hear at least the opening tracks in German (played rather too fast for my liking!!) using the Ïðîñëóøàòü link. I can find no
mention of the performers and suspect it may be less than 100% legal. I have some Russian scientists working with me at the moment and will ask them if they know of any Bach sung in Russian.

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (March 30, 2006):
Aryeh Oron wrote:
< Almost 10 days passed since your message and none of our Russian members has answered your questions. >
Another reason I asked, Aryeh and All, is that Kondrashin recorded several of the Mahler vocal symphonies, 2, 3, and 4 (to the best of my knowledge) in both German and Russian versions with the same soloists.

There is a Bernstein Mahler 2/5 with Tourel and Davrath in Hebrew issued on CBS LPs but never released on
CDs.

All this is interesting and sometimes aesthetically quite wonderful in addition to mere curiosity.
Thanks,

Margaret Mikulska wrote (March 30, 2006):
Alexander Volkov wrote::
< I can originate a similar topic in a Russian-language forum devoted to classical music - http://forumklassika.ru and inform here about replies. >
That forum seems quite lively. I'd love to participate, but I could never find a Cyrillic keyboard. Typing when looking at a cheat sheet with Russian kbd layout is a pain in the neck. What do you do, if I may ask, when you have to switch between Latin alphabet (which you use here) and Cyrillic (domestically in Russia)?

Or perhaps you have any idea how/where exactly I could buy a Russian keyboard which can be connected to a laptop?

Sorry it's off-topic, but there aren't many Russians on English-language forums.

Alexander Volkov wrote (March 30, 2006):
Alexander Volkov wrote:
>> music - http://forumklassika.ru and inform here about replies. <<
Margaret Mijukska wrote:
< That forum seems quite lively. I'd love to participate, but I could never find a Cyrillic keyboard. >
Your can use language keyboard stickers or use an on-line tool: http://translit.ru to transliterate from latin to cyrillic and vice versa.

MM> Sorry it's off-topic
To make this mail a bit more in-topic I'd like to say, that on that Russian forum a discussion exists which is directly related to bach cantatas - "The translation of "Bach's" texts":
http://forumklassika.ru/showthread.php?t=3856
It was induced by recently published book "Bach's Masterpieces in Russian"
http://classica21.ru/books/monograph/35

Alexander Volkov wrote (April 5, 2006):
[To Yoël L. Arbeitman]
As I promised, I originated a topic on Russian forums: http://forumklassika.ru/showthread.php?t=6890

Thanks to its two members, I can provide the following information.

Cantatas by Sondeckis - in German.

Also the following recordings are known:
BWV 451, 485, 489 - with Ivan Kozlovsky (tenor) - on Russian.
Arias from BWV 114, 143 - with Ivan Kozlovsky (tenor), Garry Grodberg (organ), Alexander Korneev (flute).
BWV 459, 478, 479, 489, 505, 508, 512, 515 - Nina Dorliak (soprano), Svatoslav Rihter (piano) - on Russian.
BWV 169 - with Galina Pisarenko (soprano), Moscow Chamber Orchestra - in German.
BWV 47 - most likely in German.

Also a CD was issued (2004, St.Petersburg - remastering from tape recordings of 1950s), which contains songs and arias from cantatas - with Sofia Preobrazhenskaya (mezzo) - in Russian.

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (March 30, 2006):
Alexander Volkov wrote:
< BWV 451, 485, 489 - with Ivan Kozlovsky (tenor) - on Russian.
Arias from BWV 114, 143 - with Ivan Kozlovsky (tenor), Garry Grodberg (organ), Alexander Korneev (flute). >
This is amazing: Kozlovsky (for those who do not know) was one of the two outstanding Russian tenors (together with Lemeshev)

< BWV 459, 478, 479, 489, 505, 508, 512, 515 - Nina Dorliak (soprano), Svatoslav Rihter (piano) - on Russian.
BWV 169 - with Galina Pisarenko (soprano), Moscow Chamber Orchestra - in German.
BWV 47 - most likely in German.
Also a CD was issued (2004, St.Petersburg - remastering from tape recordings of 1950s), which contains songs and arias from cantatas - with Sofia Preobrazhenskaya (mezzo) - in Russian. >
Sofia is also a favorite on mine. I have her in Chaikovsky's Orleanskaya Dyeva. Thank you very much,

Spanish Bach: was being realistic about performing lots of music

Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (April 15, 2007):
Harry W. Crosby wrote:
< Yeah, those dumb Spaniards devised a unique method whereby the reader is burdened by knowing, as a sentence starts, if it is a question or an exclamation.
This retarded practice is particularly burdensome when one reads aloud, since it spoils all the humor of those "Oops!" to late-sentence inflections that are required when the punctuation is discovered well into the thought. >
The only Bach in Spanish I have heard is one I have not heard. That sounds strange but it is fact. The Buenos Aires Furtwängler MP fragment has the chorus singing in Spanish. The sonics of the Chorus are so poor that I would not really know what language they are singing in.At all events their ooping or not does not make much of an impression.

Bach in English: Part 1 | Part 2 | Bach in Other Languages