COMPOSERS: Charles Gounod,Gioachino Rossini,Richard Wagner,Vincenzo Bellini
LABELS: Nimbus Prima Voce
PERFORMER: Antonina Nezhdanova
CATALOGUE NO: NI 7877 ADD mono
From the singer who once claimed that she ‘could not live without the songs of Schubert’ to one whose artistry inspired Rachmaninov’s ‘Vocalise’. Coloratura soprano Antonina Nezhdanova made many fine 78s, most of them taken down via the acoustic horn, though Nimbus have located some that were electrically recorded.
By then Nezhdanova was in her sixties, as indeed was Maria Kurenko when, in 1950-1, she made a series of recordings for the Rachmaninov Society. Songs such as ‘To her’ and ‘When yesterday we met’ are tended with motherly affection, while mother and son (Vadim Gontzoff) make a heartfelt duet of ‘Two partings: a dialogue’.