Georgi Vinogradov and Red Army Ensemble -- The Bending Branch

Georgi Vinogradov, tenor soloist, with the Red Army Ensemble, performing the Russian folk song 'The Bending Branch', recorded in the USSR and issued in the USA on the two sides of a ten-inch Stinson 78-RPM disc during the 1940s.
The song tells of a failed love affair and its unhappy consequences for the suitor.
I once challenged a relative, born in Russia, holder of an earned PhD from a US university, fluent in both Russian and English-- she was among the first broadcasters of Russian-language programs on the Voice of America-- to name a happy Russian song. State-commissioned 'everything-is-wonderful-in-the-dictatorship-of-the-proletariat' songs were excluded. She suggested a few, but each time she recited the lyrics she was compelled to withdraw the song. Finally she laughed and said she was unable to think at the moment of a Russian song that is happy all the way through. It is she who gave me the recording of this superlative performance.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Georgi
• Vinogradov
• Red
• Army
• Russian
• USSR
• Soviet
• Choral
• Folk
• Song
• 78-RPM

[riverhouse2007]

Thanks for this. It's beautiful.

[Kievest]

I add to your blessings of good health

and optimism for posting such tender

beauty and exquisite artistry.

[fikamar27]

Не житьё мне здесь без милой:

С кем теперь идти к венцу?

Знать судил мне рок с могилой

Обручиться молодцу.

Расступись, земля сырая,

Дай мне, молодцу, покой,

Приюти меня, родная,

В темный терем гробовой.

[fikamar27]

То не ветер ветку клонит,

Не дубравушка шумит -

То мое сердечко стонет,

Как осенний лист дрожит;

Извела меня кручина,

Подколодная змея!..

Догорай, моя лучина,

Догорю с тобой и я!

[riverhouse2007]

After listening to all his other stuff, I keep coming back to this. GP always sings a persona - frequently that of the piquantly sad clown Pierrot, but this is not Pierrot. He arranges for and plays his voice as if it were a violin always, and he does that here. But whose character does he assume? It's bewitching and almost impossible to listen to objectively. Someone close to his own persona, perhaps?

[Randidan]

@rshnrvrrbrt Get the current(or recent ) issue of The Record Collector from England! It has an (almost) complete discography of him and much of the little information that is known of him, including CD listings of his recordings! Contact me if you don't know how to get it...

[rshnrvrrbrt]

My grandmother in Hollywood, Calif. had this very same 'Stinson' record way back in the early 1950's, and I used to always listen to it as a small boy.

Vinogradov had such a pure voice, beautiful!

brings back so many memories.

wish I could find some CD collections of his popular songs...

does anyone know?

(there are a couple of his classical ones still around)

[SkifSkolot]

Спасибо! Давно искал эту песню в хорошем исполнении. А исполнение ПРЕВОСХОДНОЕ!

[LHaritonov]

@riverhouse2007

This is a very old Russian folk song... NOT Czech one... Thank you for this! It's great!

[lisabraun52]

Yes, louč /loutch/ in czech

[orkinese]

lisabraun52: torch is rather inaccurate (except as a source of light); luchina is a burning wooden splinter commonly used in peasant households to light the room; it figures prominently in Russian folk songs (see Shalyapin, Plevitskaya Luchinushka)

[riverhouse2007]

Ah! Of course, another Russian sad and beautiful song about death. Thank you lisabraun52 for letting me know this.