Utwory na płycie:

• Pt. 1 Scene 1 (1869 Version): What's Up With You?
• Pt. 1 Scene 1 (1869 Version): For Whom Do You Desert Us?
• Pt. 1 Scene 1 (1869 Version): True-Believers! The Boyar Is Steadfast
• Pt. 1 Scene 1 (1869 Version): Glory to Thee, Almighty Creator
• Pt. 1 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Long Live Tsar Boris!
• Pt. 1 Scene 2 (1869 Version): My Soul Is Grieving
• Pt. 1 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Glory! Glory! Glory!
• Pt. 2 Scene 1 (1869 Version): One More, One Final Tale
• Pt. 2 Scene 1 (1869 Version): That Dream Once More!
• Pt. 2 Scene 1 (1869 Version): You Have Been Awake and Writing All Night
• Pt. 2 Scene 1 (1869 Version): Good Father, I Have Often Wanted
• Pt. 2 Scene 1 (1869 Version): It's Ringing for Matins
• Pt. 2 Scene 2 (1869 Version): What Can I Offer You, Reverend Fathers?
• Pt. 2 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Once Upon a Time in the City of Kazan
• Pt. 2 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Why Aren't You Singing?
• Pt. 2 Scene 2 (1869 Version): He Rides On
• Pt. 2 Scene 2 (1869 Version): I Can Read
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): My Beloved Bridegroom
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): Enough, My Tsarevna
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): I've Achieved the Highest Power
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): What Do You Want?
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): But No! Wait, Wait a Moment
• Pt. 3 (1869 Version): Death Does Not Frighten Me
• Pt. 4 Scene 1 (1869 Version): Is the Mass Over?
• Pt. 4 Scene 1 (1869 Version): Trrrr... Tin Hat
• Pt. 4 Scene 1 (1869 Version): Why Is He Crying?
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Noble Boyars!
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Well Then, Let Us Now Vote
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): A Pity That Prince Shuisky Is Not Here
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Begone! Begone!
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): A Humble Monk
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Once, Deep in Sleep
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): Leave Us... Go Away, Everyone!
• Pt. 4 Scene 2 (1869 Version): O Lord! Lord! Look Down

Boris Godunov (1869 version)
Opera in seven scenes
Libretto by the composer, based on the drama by Alexander Pushkin

Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov stands out among the major works of the opera repertoire in having an extremely complex creative history. The original libretto, by the composer himself, was based closely on Pushkin’s Shakespeare-inspired drama about the ill-fated Russian ruler. Mussorgsky completed the score in 1869, and submitted it to the committees of the Imperial Theatres.. It was rejected, however, primarily because of the lack of a female lead and therefore a love interest, but Mussorgsky’s unadorned style has also been mentioned as a reason. In 1871 the composer therefore reworked the opera extensively, adding new scenes – and a female principal in the form of the Polish princess Marina Mniszek – and changing the overall structure from seven scenes into a prologue and four acts.

The revised Boriswas completed in 1872, and two years later it was finally performed in St Petersburg, while the Moscow audience had to wait until 1888, seven years after the death of its composer. In order to promote the work, Mussorgsky’s colleague and friend Rimsky-Korsakov later undertook to revise the work, making the orchestration more traditional and colourful and softening a number of harsh harmonies. It was the Rimsky-Korsakov version that took the opera out of Russia and without it, the opera would not be as widely known as it is today. In recent times, however, several opera houses have begun performing the more abrasive original version from 1869, and it is this ‘Ur-Boris’ that has been recorded here. It is performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under its principal guest conductor, Kent Nagano. They are joined by a cast of mainly Russian vocal soloists, headed by Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Boris, a role he performed under Nagano already in 2013 at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the opera, as in Pushkin’s drama, the Russian people plays a hugely important role – here performed by the Göteborg Opera Chorus.

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Recorded at public performances and additional sessions, 2nd 11th March 2017

at the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Sweden. Cardboard box - 2 discs.