Spring Night (Russian Songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov) Lena Belkina & Natalia Sidorenko

• Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski (1840 - 1893):
• 1 Tschaikowski: To bïlo ranneyu vesnoy, Op. 38 No. 2 (It was in early spring) 03:06
• 2 Tschaikowski: Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal, Op. 6 No. 6 (Only he who knows longing) 03:33
• 3 Tschaikowski: Zabyt' tak skoro (To forget so soon) 03:19
• 4 Tschaikowski: Kolïbel'naya pesnya, Op. 16 No. 1 (Lullaby) 05:18
• 5 Tschaikowski: Skazhi, o chom v teni vetvey, Op. 57 No. 1 (Tell me what is in the shade of the branches) 04:12
• 6 Tschaikowski: Noch', Op. 60 No. 9 (Night) 04:19
• 7 Tschaikowski: Kolïbel'naya pesn' v buryu, Op. 54 No. 10 (Lullaby in a Storm) 03:13
• 8 Tschaikowski: Serenada, Op. 63 No. 6 (Serenade) 03:22
• 9 Tschaikowski: Snowa, kak preshde, odin, Op. 73 No. 6 (I am alone again, as before) 02:42
• 10 Tschaikowski: Rastvoril ya okno, Op. 63 No. 2 (I opened the window) 01:59
• Sergei Wassiljewitsch Rachmaninow (1873 - 1943):
• 11 Rachmaninow: Siren', Op. 21 No. 5 (Lilacs) 02:18
• 12 Rachmaninow: Utro, Op. 4 No. 2 (Morning) 02:17
• 13 Rachmaninow: Ditya kak zvetok ty prekrasna, Op. 8 No. 2 (Child, you are beautiful as a flower) 02:08
• 14 Rachmaninow: Duma, Op. 8 No. 3 (Brooding) 04:12
• 15 Rachmaninow: Polyubila ya na pechal' svoyu, Op. 8 No. 4 (I have Grown Fond of Sorrow) 02:35
• 16 Rachmaninow: Son, Op. 8 No. 5 (A Dream) 01:35
• 17 Rachmaninow: Ya zhdu tebya, Op. 14 No. 1 (I Wait for Thee) 02:01
• 18 Rachmaninow: Ona kak polden' khorosha, Op. 14 No. 3 (She is as beautiful as midday) 03:01
• 19 Rachmaninow: Noch pechal'na, Op. 26 No. 12 (The night is sad) 02:47
• 20 Rachmaninow: Vesenniye vodi, Op. 14 No. 11 (Spring Waters) 02:09
• Total Runtime 01:00:06

Info for Spring Night (Russian Songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov)

For Russian musicians, the romances of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov have always been a test of their artistic maturity. Even the name of the genre has many shades of meaning in Russian and sometimes denotes very different forms of musical expressions. The vocal chamber music works of these two composers, who are usually mentioned in the same breath as the luminaries of Russian music, indeed show the enormous range of artistic expression of their creators.

Lena Belkina (mezzo-soprano) and Natalia Sidorenko (piano)who have embarked on the difficult path that leads to a perfect fusion of sounds and the discovery of a personal intonation in these small but complex masterpieces. It is telling that the mezzo-soprano Lena Belkina - for whom Russian with its awkward intonation is a mother tongue - lives and works in Austria, Germany, Italy and France. This made her aware that the romances of the great Russian composers are part of a worldwide musical heritage.

There are several themes that run through the romances collected on this CD and that present their performers with demanding artistic challenges: Spring: from tender green leaves that have barely sprouted to lavishly blooming lilacs, rushing streams and the rustling the nightingale. The night: with its unexpected warmth, which is sometimes overwhelming, sometimes melancholy and evokes lullabies, serenades and dreams of a happy life even in a storm, which often vanish into thin air when you wake up.

Lena Belkina, soprano
Natalia Sidorenko, piano

Lena Belkina
was born in Tashkent in 1987. She studied at the Glière Higher Musical Institute in Kiev and the National Music Academy of Ukraine P. Tchaikovsky. She won first prize at the international Boris Gmyria singing competition. After successfully completing an advanced course, she graduated from the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater in Leipzig.

Between 2009 and 2012 she was a soloist at the Leipzig Opera, then from 2012 to 2014 at the Vienna State Opera. The year 2012 brought her a leading role in the film adaptation of the opera La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini, directed by Andrea Andermann. The film won Italy's leading television award, the Prix Italia, and was shown on leading television channels around the world. In 2014 she made her debut in the virtuoso role of Arsace in Rossini's opera Aureliano in Palmira at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The reviewer of the renowned magazine Gramophone (award 2015 edition) praised “the Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Lena Belkina, as good-looking young warrior as one could wish for Zenobia, and on top of that an excellent singer and performer”. The production by film director Mario Martone won in the “Rediscovered Work” category at the International Opera Awards 2015. In 2016 she made her debut on the stage of the Kiev Opera as Cinderella. In 2017 and 2018, hundreds of thousands of listeners were able to experience Lena Belkina as the heroine of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet on the lake stage at the Bregenz Festival. The latest performance of the mezzo-soprano is the embodiment of Johanna in Tchaikovsky's opera “Jungfrau von Orleans” (based on Schiller's play of the same name) at the Theater an der Wien 2019. In 2017 and 2018, hundreds of thousands of listeners were able to experience Lena Belkina as the heroine of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet on the lake stage at the Bregenz Festival. The latest performance of the mezzo-soprano is the embodiment of Johanna in Tchaikovsky's opera “Jungfrau von Orleans” (based on Schiller's play of the same name) at the Theater an der Wien 2019. In 2017 and 2018, hundreds of thousands of listeners were able to experience Lena Belkina as the heroine of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet on the lake stage at the Bregenz Festival. The latest performance of the mezzo-soprano is the embodiment of Johanna in Tchaikovsky's opera “Jungfrau von Orleans” (based on Schiller's play of the same name) at the Theater an der Wien 2019.

Lena Belkina has worked at opera houses such as the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Reggio in Turin, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Palau des les Arts in Valencia, the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland, at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and in the national theaters of Tokyo and Prague and many others. The singer's extensive repertoire includes a wide range of significant lyrical roles and coloratura of the mezzo range from the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Massenet, Tchaikovsky and others. Her discography contains two solo albums: “Dolci Momenti” with arias by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti (2015) and “Vienna Classic” with arias by Mozart, Gluck and Haydn (2017), released on the Sony Classical label.

Booklet for Spring Night (Russian Songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov)