Alexander Dargomyzhsky

[Alan Howe]

Now, here's a composer I hardly know anything about - and yet he's supposed to have been influential in the development of Russian opera away from the traditional 'number piece' towards something more through-composed. Can anyone help me get a handle on his music?

[Christopher]

In the main hall of the Moscow Conservatory, there are 14 large and rather imposing portraits of composers painted on to the wall looking down on to the audience - you can see them here - http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/gallery.aspx?id=133419. These are:


Down the right side:
Tchaikovsky
Beethoven
Mussorgsky (Handel used to be in his place, till 1953)
Schubert
Schumann
Chopin (Gluck used to be in his place, till 1953)
Rubinstein

Down the left side:
Glinka
Bach
Mozart
Rimsky-Korsakov (Mendelssohn used to be in his place, till 1953)
Wagner
Borodin
and...Dargomyzhsky (Haydn used to be in his place, till 1953) - portrait here - http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/gallery.aspx?id=133419#&gid=1&pid=13


As a late teen, I spent a lot of time in Moscow and often went to concerts there and always wondered "Of course I know of the others perfectly well but who is this Dargomyzhsky?".  This was early 1990s - pre-CDs (almost), certainly pre-internet and pre-music shops in just-post-Soviet Moscow.

But 10 years later his works started to appear on CD and some of them are quite good.  His most popular work is his opera Rusalka (this word in many Slav languages is often translated as "mermaid" though I think "nymph" would be better as, if you read the stories, they often live in forests, not rivers or the sea!).  It's an unmistakably Russian piece: a thumping overture in the style of Ruslan and Ludmila, and some very attractive set pieces throughout.  Some good dances too, and a rousing finale.  Some parts, though, veer perhaps too far into Russian-folksiness. "The Miller's aria" is the one the (Russian) audiences love, though personally I don't (folksy...).

Other recorded works include his opera Esmaralda (based on Hugo's "Hunchback") and The Stone Guest (same story as Don Giovanni, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Cui), and fragments from operas Mazeppa and Rogdana. I don't know them well enough to comment save to say that I found The Stone Guest tough going while I recall finding Esmaralda quite melodic on first listening (need to listen again though). Wikipedia says of The Stone Guest - "is his most famous work, known as a pioneering effort in melodic recitative. With the orchestration and the end of the first scene left incomplete at his death, it was finished by César Cui and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and was much prized by The Five for what was perceived as its progressive approach to operatic expression. It was premiered in 1872, but never became a lasting standard operatic repertoire item" - I think most Russians would assert Rusalka is his most famous work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dargomyzhsky

Orchestral pieces are in the style of works by the still-to-come Mighty Five (to whom he would undoubtedly have been close had he lived later/longer - he died 1869) or even Liadov.

These include:

Chukhon Fantasia (also called Fantasy on Finnish Melodies)
Baba-Ÿaga or from the Volga to Riga, fantaisie-scherzo
Kazachok (Cossack Dance) - fantasia on Ukrainian themes
Ballad of a Flea (song with orchestra)
The Old Corporal (song with orchestra)
and - my favourite - Bolero - which can be heard here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-ymi8-7q4  (Old Soviet recording with Svetlanov and USSR SO so hope that's OK to post).

I would describe his work as nice enough but more like a harbinger of the music of the Mighty Five and other 19th century Russian nationalists (ditto his contemporary Verstovsky).  I wouldn't, though, hang him on the wall next to Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky etc .

[Christopher]

He also wrote a lot of romances/songs for voice and piano.  Not my thing.

[Alan Howe]

The Stone Guest strikes me as a rather original piece - no arias, through-composed, etc. (it's available on YouTube) - but also a somewhat tough listen.

[MartinH]

A few years back I made a real effort to listen to as many Russian operas as I could lay hands on. I was rather ashamed that I only knew a few each by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky and not much else. So I collected all the RK, Tchaikovsky, Prokofieff, Shostakovich, and lot of others that I'd never heard: Glinka, Serov, Dargomyzhsky among them. It was a great 6 months of discovery. When I got to Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest, I was blown away. I loved it! This is what Mozart's Don Giovanni should have been: short. Other than the language, this would be a great opera for small groups to mount. Not a tough listen as far as I'm concerned. The group effort, aided by Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov, is a splendid and creepy opera well worth hearing. For so long when I thought of 19th c Russian music, only the Five and their students/colleagues came to mind, but there was a lot else going on that was unfortunately eclipsed.

[Alan Howe]

When I got to Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest, I was blown away. ...Not a tough listen as far as I'm concerned.

Certainly a tougher listen than Rusalka, I'd've thought. But I'm intrigued by what I've heard, so I think I'm going to dive in...

[Jonathan]

The only work of his that I've ever heard is Liszt's transcription of Dargomyzhsky's "Tarantella slave" (S483).  I have no idea what the original sounds like though, I assume it's an orchestral work though.

[adriano]

Will re-listen (Svetlanov's) "Rusalka" one of these days too. I also have Mark Ermler's "Stone Guest" - and "Esmeralda" (a USSR Radio recording of 1950) with the great tenor Anatoli Orfenov.

[Alan Howe]

I had no idea what a magnificent opera Rus(s)alka is. It's brimming over with memorable melodies, is beautifully orchestrated and has real punch. Particularly notable are the opera's duets and other concerted passages. The recording under Mikhail Jurowski on Profil has great impact and is well sung, apart from one rather woolly-sounding bass. I have absolutely no idea why this isn't part of the regular operatic repertoire.

[Alan Howe]

The Stone Guest is a very different type of opera: in many ways its rendering of ordinary speech in the form of 'sung conversations' rather than duets and ensembles reminds me of the procedures of Mussorgsky and the later Russians. It certainly sounds very advanced in comparison with Rus(s)alka - and it's hard to imagine it gaining much of a popular following outside the Russian-speaking world. It would certainly require good surtitles in non-Russian theatres, I'd've thought.

There's a superlative performance available on Melodiya conducted by Mark Ermler, with the peerless trio of Vladimir Atlantov (tenor), Alexander Vedernikov (bass) and Tamara Milashkina (soprano). Well worth a listen...

[adriano]

And the one conducted by Svetlanov (which I am goiong to re-listen this week) has Ivan Kozlovsky and Evegenya Smolenskaya! It was recorded in 1971; Kozlovsky was 71 years old - and still in super shape!

[semloh]

Christopher - thank you for introducing us to D. - and for your depiction of yourself in post-Soviet Moscow. Loved it.
My only knowledge of his music is an old Melodiya LP of short orchestral works. I'll search it out and have a listen, bearing in mind the positive comments about his music, so far. I had no idea of his stature, or his skill as a composer of operas.

[Christopher]

My recording of Rusalka is with the Grand Choir of the All-Russian Radio and Television under Vladimir Fedoseyev (Natasha Rusalka-Natalia Mikhailova; Prince-Konstantin Pluzhnikov; Princess-Nina Terent'eva; Miller-Alexander Vedernikov - BRILLIANT CLASSICS).  But for some reason it leaves out an encore piece - The Dance of the Mermaids (Act 4 Scene 1).