Dmitri Shostakovich · Franz Liszt

Suite on Poems by Michelangelo Boanarroti

3 Sonetti del Petrarca (1st version)

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, barotone
Ivari Ilja, piano

ODE 1277-2 · CD · November 2015

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Track listing

15 tracks · 61:15

Listen to samples on selected tracks.

Dmitri Shostakovich

Suite on Poems by Michelangelo Bonarroti, Op. 145 39:40
1 Truth 5:15
2 Morning 3:00
3 Love 4:41
4 Separation 1:55
5 Wrath 1:48
6 Dante 3:33
7 To the Exile 4:24
8 Creativity 2:34
9 Creativity 2:34
10 Night 3:34
11 Death 5:19
12 Immortality 3:34

Franz Liszt

3 Sonetti del Petrarca, S. 270a (1st version) 19:04
13 Pace non trovo (Sonetto 104) 6:45
14 Benedetto sia il giorno (Sonetto 47) 6:36
15 l´vidi in terra angelici costumi (SOnetto 123) 5:43

Product details

Format: CD
Release date: November 2015
Catalogue no.: ODE 1277-2
EAN / UPC: 0761195127728
Total duration: 61:15

Performers

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, barotone
Ivari Ilja, piano

Ondine's fourth release together with star baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky features a program of sonnets by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and Franz Liszt (1811-1886). Hvorostovsky is accompanied by his longstanding duo partner, the Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja.

Shostakovich's setting on the poems by Michelangelo is the composer's final masterpiece and among the greatest achievements in 20th century Russian vocal music. The work in 11 movements is filled with deep meaning. In his work Shostakovich, already seriously at that point, contemplates the themes of life and death.

Liszt's three Sonnets by Petrarch are based on the love poems by the Italian Renaissance writer. Liszt wrote numerous sketches for the work and also completed several versions of it. For a good reason Liszt was very satisfied with his work: "I think they have come out exceptionally well, and are more perfect in form than anything I have published until now."

Dmitri Hvorostovsky is recognized as one of the leading and most charismatic baritones of our time, performing internationally at such opera houses as the New York Met, and partnering regularly with singers Renée Fleming and Jonas Kaufmann.

Booklet with liner notes in English and German and the song texts in the original Russian (transliteration) and in English

Hvorostovsky offers searching readings of these rugged, jagged songs which are full of resignation and bittersweet regret, of loss and separation (...). There are few things finer than Hvorostovsky in full flight.

Mark Pullinger, Gramophone, December 2015, Editor's Choice

Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born and studied in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. From the start, audiences were bowled over by his cultivated voice, innate sense of musical line, and natural legato. In 1989, he won the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Since his Western operatic debut at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, he has been invited for regular engagements at the major opera houses and festivals internationally. Dmitri also performed as a celebrated recitalist in every corner of the globe, and appeared in concert with the world's top orchestras and conductors, including James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov, and Valery Gergiev.

Full biography

Ivari Ilja

Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja has performed on many important concert stages throughout the world, as duo partner of such renowned singers as Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Irina Arkhipova, Maria Guleghina, and Elena Zaremba. Since 2003, he has repeatedly toured with Dmitri Hvorostovsky to the USA, Europe, Hong Kong, and Japan. Born in Tallinn, Ivari Ilja performed his studies at the Estonian State Conservatoire as well as the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire.

Full biography