A program of Rachmaninov songs might seem an odd choice for the debut album by soprano Asmik Grigorian, who is more known for opera than for art song. She has gained notice for her ability to sing a wide variety of operatic roles in multiple languages; she is a highly expressive singer, but for most Western listeners, the Russian language will interpose an additional layer (the booklet has French and English translations, but not the original Russian texts). However, Grigorian knew what she was doing. For one thing, each of ...
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A program of Rachmaninov songs might seem an odd choice for the debut album by soprano Asmik Grigorian, who is more known for opera than for art song. She has gained notice for her ability to sing a wide variety of operatic roles in multiple languages; she is a highly expressive singer, but for most Western listeners, the Russian language will interpose an additional layer (the booklet has French and English translations, but not the original Russian texts). However, Grigorian knew what she was doing. For one thing, each of the songs she chooses, to use her own words, "is akin to a small opera." They have strongly declamatory qualities, and one of them, Let us rest, the third song of the 15 Romances, Op. 26, sets not a poem but a speech from Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya . Grigorian inhabits each of these little dramas, and her voice, rich but with a distinct edge, is a thrill in itself, with a clean set of high notes, some of them quiet, in a song like They answered from the 12 Romances, Op....
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