Boris Godunov - by Rachmaninov

[Christopher]

I wasn't aware until today that Rachmaninov wrote Two Monologues based on Pushkin's Boris Godunov:

1. Boris' Monologue ("Thou, father patriarch")
2. Pimen's Monologue ("One last story")

Pimen's monologue has been recorded at least twice, by Ivan Kozlovsky with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre under Israil Gusman; and by Sergei Larin with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky.  In tone and spirit it is very similar to the music written by Mussorgsky. Does anyone know if Boris's Monologue has also been recorded?  I can't find trace of a recording but others may know better!

[TerraEpon]

These are supposedly for voice and piano and never seen a recording of either (not even on the so-called complete works on Brilliant which is, obviously, incomplete). Had no idea there was an orchestral version (my research never came across such a mention so it's probably someone else's orchestration).

[sdtom]

who do you think did the orchestration?

[adriano]

Probably Vladimir Yurovsky, who also orchestrated the other Rachmaninov songs of that magnficent Kozlovsky Melodyia LP of 1964. The Library of Congress has many references on these titles.

[Christopher]

Hi Terrapon - I have found a recording of Pimen's Monologue in its original version (tenor + piano). It's with Aleksey Martinov (tenor) and Aristotel Konstantinidi (piano). I have looked widely on the English and Russian internet to see if it's available commercially and it appears that it is not.  It is, however, available on plenty of Russian-language websites to download, so let me know if you are interested and I can send you a link. Or I could post it up here if the moderators would approve.

I can't find any evidence of a recording in the original version of the other monologue (Boris's Monologue).

[Mark Thomas]

As we don'the know the provenance of the recording, I think it best not to post it here, please.

[Amphissa]

At the risk of being persnickety and pedantic, could we please try to spell Rachmaninoff's name correctly on UC? How would you like it if some government officials from the "old country" that you fled in fear and disgust, a refugee from tyranny, decided they wanted to change the spelling of your name and have your body dug up and shipped back to them, against your wishes and without the permission of your family?

[Mark Thomas]

It would be taking the moderators' responsibilities way too far to enforce just the one spelling of Rachmaninov/Rachmaninoff's name. I think that this issue has arisen before here, although I can't find the thread just now. However, see here for a long, inconclusive and occasionally entertaining and informative debate elsewhere on the topic. The facts seem to be that the more modern, literal transliteration (if you see what I mean) of the Russian original is Rachmaninov, but that the older transliteration, which best reflects the spoken Russian, is Rachmaninoff, and that's the version which the composer himself used when writing in Roman characters. Beyond that I'm not prepared to go...

[Alan Howe]

Nor me. Moving on...

[adriano]

I think we should have more important problems than ov's and off's!

[Alan Howe]

Quite so.