COMPANY: First Hand
ARTIST: Lenia Safiropoulou
CATEGORY: CD
COMPOSER: Modest Mussorgsky

Product: 5060216347752

Out of stock

This is an enjoyable recital on the theme of unrequited love and sunless existence.

The Brahms Lieder bookend the program, opening with his Op. 57 and then returning for one song after the dourness of the Moussorgsky Stmless cycle. In between we're given not only the Moussorgsky, but Prokofieff's Anna Akhmatova songs.

Lenia Safiropoulou has a strong mezzosoprano that she uses with intelligence and

skill. The sound itself is not particularly memorable, but what she does with it is interesting and commands the listener to sit up and pay attention. Her diction is excellent and her characterizations are vivid without caricature. Andrei Hovrin does wonderful things with the piano parts. The two performers play off each other well. Texts and translations; the Russian is not transliterated. Good sound.

REYNOLDS

Program:

Brahms: 8 Lieder, Op. 57

5 Lieder, Op. 47 - Sonntag

Prokofiev: 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27

Mussorgsky: Sunless