Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death (excerpts)

Songs and Dances of Death (1877), song cycle
Cradle song (1875)
by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov
Dmitri Shostakovich orchestrated the cycle in 1962

• Kolybel'naja (Russian)
Stonet rebjonok... Svecha, nagoraja,
Tusklo mercajet krugom.
Celuju noch' kolybel'ku kachaja,
Mat' ne zabylasja snom.

Ranym-ranjokhon'ko v dver' ostorozhno
Smert' serdobol'naja stuk!
Vzdrognula mat', ogljanulas' trevozhno...
,,Polno pugat'sja, moj drug!
...

• Cradle song (English translation)
Faint sounds of moaning!
The lamp now expiring casts but a dim flick'ring light.
Rocking the cradle, the mother untiring
Waits, watches, all through the night.

Long before dawn someone comes knocking,
Death the deliverer is here!
Hark! Trembling, the mother desists from her rocking...
"Friend, calm your fear and despair!
...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• Mussorgsky

[zaporogue]

who's singing ?

[sedetteda]

Marianna Tarasova (Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, with Valery Gergiev / Kirov orchestra)

[saturne46]

Admirable clip. La musique tellement forte de Moussorgski, le visage tragique de Marianna Tarasova, avec la Mort qui rode. Le contraste avec la scène familiale. Forte impression, grande réussite ! Bravo

[neuefreiheit]

WoW!

Very Great! Please More!

[mlkoln]

I totally agree to Ted10038!

Written for male voice - but I like this songs much more sung by a female ...

And this is the best interpretation of this song I've found on "youtube" ...

So - please - give us more!

[Ted10038]

This is wonderful. Please stop teasing us and put the whole cycle up, OK?

Thanks so much, Ted

[GEMahler]

MORE MORE PLEEEAAASEEEE!!!

[Ted10038]

Hi:

I very much appreciate your taking the trouble to put the transliterated Russian in and the translation - that was very public-spirited of you.

It's a beautiful version - much coser to the original intent than the much more bombastic versions by Hvorostovski and Talvela, which are impressive in their own way, of course.

I would LOVE to see the rest of the cycle so

if you have all 4 songs please upload them.

Thanks so much!!

Ted

[barokdma1]

Great video! Is a DVD available for purchase?