ABSTRACT
In 1935, Georgy Sviridov (1915–98) set six poems by Alexander Pushkin to music in the genre of the Russian romans: Ronyayet lezs bagryanyi svoi ubor (The Forest Is Losing Its Crimson Headdress), Zimnyaya doroga (Winter Road), K’nyanya (To Nanny), Zimnyi vyecher (Winter Evening), Predchuvstvye (Premonition), and Podyezzhaya pod Izhory (Driving to Izhori). Lisa Feurzeig explores its narrative similarities to German song cycles, especially Schumann’s Eichendorff Liederkreis op. 39, with attention to how and whether the songs are linked to tell a story. She also compares the lives and poetry of Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) and Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857). Information on Western classical music in nineteenth-century Russia provides evidence that Sviridov may have been familiar with Schumann’s song cycles.
Rachael Gates takes a performer’s perspective, pointing out the autobiographical nature of the poetry, commonalities in musical and poetic themes, and musical devices clearly designed to serve the poetry and drama and tie the selections into a cycle. She sheds light on vocal demands and offers new translations and background information pertinent to performance.
