Dmitri Shostakovich
The Execution of Stepan Razin, Op. 119
Zoya Suite, Op. 64a · Suite on Finnish Themes
Shenyang, bass-baritone
Mari Palo, soprano
Tuomas Katajala, tenor
State Choir "Latvija"
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
Track listing
13 tracks · 65:37Listen to samples on selected tracks.
Dmitri Shostakovich
- 1 The Execution of Stepan Razin. Poem for bass, chorus and symphony orchestra, Op. 119 (1964)* 25:34
- Zoya Suite, Op. 64a (1944) 28:46
- 2 I Introduction (Song about Zoya) 8:10
- 3 II Scene (Combat Mission) 5:03
- 4 III Prelude (Tragedy of a Loss) 5:22
- 5 IV March (Hero's Victory) 4:24
- 6 V Finale (The Heroine's Immortality) 5:47
- Suite on Finnish Themes° 11:15
- 7 I Energico 0:52
- 8 II The Sky is Blue and White (Taivas on sininen ja valkoinen) 1:13
- 9 III Lento non troppo 1:49
- 10 IV The Girls of this Village (Tämän kylän tytöt) 1:56
- 11 V The Strawberry is a Red Berry (Mansikka on punanen marja) 1:06
- 12 VI If I could be at Leisure (Jos mie saisin jouten olla) 2:24
- 13 VII My Beloved is Beautiful (Minun kultani kaunis on) 1:57
About this recording
With this release Ondine presents two dramatic works by Dmitri Shostakovich, The Execution of Stepan Razin and the Zoya Suite, coupled with his Suite on Finnish Themes.
The Execution of Stepan Razin, premiered in Moscow in 1964, got a mixed reception. The execution scene and the final, tragic vision is simply spine-chilling: Stepan Razin's bloody head rolls to the ground and bursts out laughing at the Tsar. Capturing rich intonations and melodies of the text, the bass soloist and the chorus engage in a multi-layered dialogue of this very theatrical work.
The Zoya Suite is an orchestral suite from the music for the film Zoya (1944) a product of the war years, that tells of the cruel fate of 18-year-old partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya fighting against the Germans. Shostakovich can well and truly be regarded as the father of Russian film music and also here, it's not only musical illustration, but he endowed the film with the drama of a classical symphony.
First performed in 2001, the Suite on Finnish Themes is a rather unknown work as being only discovered nearly four decades after Shostakovich died. The suite includes several arrangements of Finnish folk songs featuring a soprano and a tenor soloist.
28-year-old bass-baritone Shenyang was the winner of the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a 2008 winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and a 2010 winner of the Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights Festival. Shenyang embodies a 21st century bridge between the cultures of East and West. Born in Tianjin, China, he studied at the Shanghai Conservatory and is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and of the Julliard School Opera Center. Recent highlights have included a return to the New York Metropolitan for a new production of Don Giovanni, and debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival and the Bavarian State Opera. Other performances have taken him all over North America and Europe.
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra continuously collaborates with Ondine, having released a remarkable discography that has been awarded with many prizes.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2012, the State Choir "Latvija" is one of Europe's finest choirs and the winner of many awards. Its repertoire covers golden classics in all genres of choral music, both accompanied and unaccompanied, in a time frame from the early Renaissance to the present day. In recent years it has partnered leading orchestras in many parts of the world under numerous outstanding conductors.
Vladimir Ashkenazy has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most renowned and revered pianists of our times, but as an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities and continues to offer inspiration to music-lovers across the world. Vladimir Ashkenazy is featured on several Ondine releases. Recordings with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra include Berlioz's Harold in Italy (ODE 1188-2), Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony (ODE 1132-5) and Rautavaara's Third Piano Concerto Gift of Dreams (ODE 950-2), commissioned by Ashkenazy as a concerto which he could conduct from the piano.
Features
Booklet with liner notes in English and Finnish, lyrics with English translation
Press
Ondine's recording (...) has just about ideal depth and perspective.
David Fanning, Gramophone, December 2013
The artists
Shenyang
Shenyang embodies a 21st century bridge between the cultures of East and West and is celebrated for his distinguished artistry on the world's eminent concert and opera stages.
Mari Palo
Mari Palo studied with Sirkka Haavisto at the Central Ostrobothnian Conservatoire and has been a pupil of Marjut Hannula at the Sibelius Academy from 1996-2003. She has also studied with Elisabeth Norberg-Schultz, and Lied with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hartmut Höll, Mitshuko Shirai and Ilmo Ranta. She won third prize and the special prize of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) in the Lappeenranta Singing Competition in 1999 and second prize in the Merikanto Competition in 2001. Since then she has appeared with many orchestras and given Lied recitals of her own in Finland, Denmark, France and Hungary. Her operatic roles include Michaela in Carmen, Regina von Emmeritz in Kuusisto's The Royal Ring, the Girl in Juha T. Koskinen's The Old Woman, and the Squirrel in Kirmo Lintinen's Nuts about Nosh.
Tuomas Katajala
Tuomas Katajala is one of the most versatile and sought after Scandinavian tenors and makes remarkable career equally in the opera, oratorio, concert and lied genres. In autumn 2017 Katajala made his house debut at Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Tamino. In the season 2017–18 he sang, among others, Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Komische Oper Berlin, Cosi fan tutte at the Seattle Opera and Der Fliegende Holländer in Helsinki as well as in a concertante performance with the Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia and under the baton of Mikko Franck in Rome and also Tamino´s role at Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden.