Unsung Lieder: Rubinstein

[saxtromba]

Although there is still a great deal of Rubinstein's music yet to be recorded, his solo piano sets are fairly well represented in the catalogs (I know of complete recordings of Opp. 3, 10, 14, 21, 22, 23, 26, 30, 37, 69, 71, 75, 81, 109, 114, and 118).  Not so the songs, even though he wrote nearly as many as he wrote piano pieces.  The duets of Op. 48 have been recorded (all 12 by Dorte and Heidrun Blase on the Thorofon label, 11 of the 12 by Jadwiga Rappé and Urszula Kryger on the Dux label, as well as various selections in various collections), and the Blase sisters also recorded the Op. 67 duets.  But that's it as far as complete sets go.  There was a recording of the Op. 57 songs, and I remember seeing the Persian Songs, Op. 34, listed (in a cassette recording, which gives you some idea of how long ago that was!), though I was never able to find them.  The Northern Flowers volume 1 of Rubinstein songs offers five of the ten Serbian Songs, Op. 105, but there doesn't seem to be a follow-up disk coming any time soon.

So the only option is collections which happen to feature a few Rubinstein songs.  Rubinstein wrote songs to German and Russian lyrics, as well as a few to French, Italian, and even English words (three that I know of; these have been recorded in German versions, but never in the original).  There being many lieder collections out there, I'm wondering whether anyone has suggestions for ones which, a) have a fair number of Rubinstein songs on them; and, b) are well-performed.

[eschiss1]

It seems his songs are even more neglected than Medtner's, and I would almost have not thought that possible - at least Medtner's have a volume or two on Chandos, an occasional appearance on a composer-in-person CD on EMI, and some representation elsewhere... odd...

[TerraEpon]

I have the Dux disc with the duets, all 12 are on it.

[saxtromba]

I have the Dux disc with the duets, all 12 are on it.

You're absolutely right; I had crossed it with the RealSound release featuring Johanna Rutishauser and Ela Berger, which also happens to be the disk with the complete Op. 57 solo songs.  So there are two and 11/12ths complete versions of the Op. 48 duets, and only one complete set of solo songs-- and that one is out of print....

[Artonglind]

Hi,
just to let you know that there is now a recording of 30 songs by Anton Rubinstein "Persian love songs" by The Art Song Project.
The CD also features Op. 32, Op. 57 and Op. 72.
You can hear sample here http://theartsongproject.com/anton-rubinstein-es-hat-die-rose-sich-beklagtthe-rose-lamented