Samuil Feinberg - Songs (Sirodeau, Luttinen, Ahonen)

Early songs - Op.4, after Pushkin No.1 “Incantation“ [00:00] - Op.7, after Blok No.2 “Snowy Night“ [04:06] No.3 “In Youthful Indolence“ [06:29] - , after Pushkin No.2 “My Beloved“ [09:48] Middle-period songs - , after Pushkin No.5 “Three Springs“ [12:09] No.7 “The Burned Letter“ [13:50] - , after Lermontov No.2 “The Imprisoned Knight“ [17:13] No.3 “The Dream“ [21:29] No.4 “Hebrew Melody“ [25:43] No.5 “The River Sprite“ [28:44] No.6 “No it’s not You I Love so Hotly“ [32:43] No.7 “Onto the Highway on my own I Walk“ [35:12] Late-period songs - Maritsa, No.1 “Maritsa“ [40:14] No.2 “First love“ [41:27] No.3 “The girl and the horse“ [43:52] No.4 “Conversation with Death“ [46:48] No.5 “The Macedonian girl“ [49:00] No.6 “Ah, how fell the snow“ [50:13] No.7 “Lullaby“ [52:25] No.8 “Waiting...“ [56:02] Christophe Sirodeau, piano Riitta-Maija Ahonen, soprano Sami Luttinen, bass Feinberg’s output is characterized, surprisingly, by a quite large amount of songs. However, if compared to his other prominent works, such as the piano sonatas, these pieces may seem to have been written by another composer. This because, with some dark exceptions, the songs present a much more intimate a warmer side of Feinberg, completely different from the seriousness and gloom of his initial piano works. Many of them present typical features of his style[s], and not only that, but they also showcase the progress from the early modernism and pessimism of his intial works to a more conservative and brighter sound-world. The songs also give us an insight into Feinberg’s artistic personality: the subtle relation between the text and the music here makes us reflect on the profound, nostalgic and slightly melancholic psyche of the composer. Melting romantic russian poetry with innovative, highly contrapuntal pianism and peculiar sung melodies, we get a creative, original outlook. The songs showcase both harmonic and rythmic complexity, as well as structural and melodic simplicity. In some ways some could almost be defined as expressionistic ( no.7), other as impressionist (Op.7 no.3, no.5), or even minimalist ( no.3). It’s important to note that these aren’t Feinberg’s complete songs; they’re the only ones with an accessible published score so far. Not only that, but his complete vocal works haven’t been recorded fully yet. I think that the most honorable mention among the unpublished ones goes to “Biedstvie“(Evil), which is among Feinberg’s most harmonically intruguing and emotionally tense songs [