Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Sorochintsï Fair (1874, orch. Fabrice Bollon 2021)
Salammbô Suite (1863-1866, arr. Fabrice Bollon 2021)
Cherevik – Tair Tazhi (bass)
Khivrya – Greta Bagiyan (mezzo)
Parasya – Carina Schmeiger (soprano)
Kum – Hans Gröning (bass)
Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe, members of the Opernchor des Theater Freiburg
The Lily’s Project/Fabrice Bollon
rec. 2023, Hans-Rosbaud Studio, SWR, Baden-Baden, Germany
Naxos 8.660547-48 [2 CDs: 158]
I think I must be the only music reviewer who has ever had the opportunity to write a review of more than a single recording of Mussorgsy’s unfinished opera Sorochintsï Fair, which is among his most rarely performed works. Yet its score contains one of his most popular concert pieces, A Night on the Bald Mountain, albeit in the choral version that he wrote specifically for inclusion in this opera. Mussorgsky was originally inspired by Nicolai Gogol’s fantastic tales of village life which make fun reading even today. Although he initially worked on the opera in a concentrated fashion, he eventually ran out of steam. Like so many of his works, it remained unfinished at his death. An incomplete version of the opera by César Cui with spoken dialogue linking the numbers was staged in 1913; it was then edited and orchestrated by him for the first complete performance in 1917. Four different composers over the following decades subsequently produced their own completions but none of the different performing versions of this opera has been an unqualified success. Recordings have not tended to stay in the catalogue for long. I earnestly hope that that does not happen with this new version from Naxos.
This recording boasts a new edition for a chamber orchestra by Naxos regular artist Fabrice Bollon. Mr Bollon has been wise enough to realize the potential inherent in Mussorgsky’s score. He gives us a version which contains only the music that Mussorgsky actually wrote for the opera (hence it runs only 78 minutes rather than the 100 minutes of other versions). Prospective buyers need not feel cheated that Bollon’s arrangement is for a 14-piece chamber orchestra (some of the players double parts in this set’s 11-player ensemble). Sorochintsï Fair does not exist in any clearly accepted orchestration, so Bollon’s version is as valid as any. In addition, his scoring matches perfectly the small village setting of the work, and it beautifully captures the autumnal mood of the piece. Bollon has given the world an edition which is ideal for student singers to explore the techniques of characterizing roles that consist of brief musical vignettes rather than full arias. Perhaps in time Bollon may get around to a new edition of Mussorgsky’s other unfinished opera, The Marriage, which is most urgently needed for lovers of Mussorgsky.
The singers in this cast are all capable and need fear no comparisons with singers on past recordings.
Tair Tazhi is fully immersed in the role of the befuddled Cherevik. His warm bass has a pleasingly grainy sound, and he sings with total conviction. As Cherevik’s daughter Parasya, Carina Schmeiger has a beguilingly youthful tone. She sings the little lament which opens Act Two quite touchingly, in a simple, direct manner. Nutthaporn Thammathi, a boyishly lyrical Gritsko, is most convincing in his scenes with Schmeiger. However, the two stand-outs in this wonderful young cast are Greta Bagiyan’s rich-toned mezzo as the lusty Khivrya, and Junbum Lee as her lothario Afanasiy. For once one can sympathize a bit with Cherevik’s unfaithful wife Khivrya, because Lee’s attractive alluring tone makes one understand why she might have taken on this paramour in the first place. Bagiyan and Lee make their scene together simply mesmerizing.
Fabrice Bollon conducts the chamber ensemble The Lily’s Project with flair and dedication. Not a strand of this colourful score passes by without its rustic charm revealed. His reduction of the choral version of A Night on the Bald Mountain is effective, and blends well with the rest of the score. For this one piece, the smallish opera chorus has been augmented with a larger children’s chorus. Both of them are featured evocatively in an offstage acoustic. The engineers from the Südwestrundfunk have provided a recording that balances perspective with a nice sense of immediacy among the principals.
As a filler, the recording includes a Suite arranged by Mr Bollon from Mussorgsky’s aborted opera based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô. The incomplete score attained one recording of all of the surviving music under Zoltán Peskó; it did not remain around for long, although it is available currently to download. Flaubert’s novel, a potboiler set in ancient Carthage, recounts the theft of a sacred veil from the temple of Moloch (an apt 19th century metaphor for sexual violence). One would not guess any of that after hearing the suite concocted from Mussorgsky’s music. The music falls into the orientalist mode of Mussorgsky’s Ballet of the Persian slave girls from Khovanshchina. This delicate, hedonistic music should receive new performances in concert halls thanks to this attractive chamber arrangement.
The previously recommendable recording of Sorochintsï Fair is a 1955 Philips recording of a fine ensemble of singers from the Slovenian National Opera of Ljubljana. It was re-issued in a wonderful transfer by Pristine Audio (review). It is Shebalin’s version of the opera, and it remains a top choice, but it is in mono only. This new Naxos recording becomes the most recommendable modern version, in good atmospheric stereo sound and with a talented cast of singers. There is really no need to hesitate on purchasing this. Hopefully it will remain in the catalogue far longer than any of its predecessors.
Mike Parr
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Other cast
Gritsko – Nutthaporn Thammathi (tenor)
Afanasiy Ivanovich – Junbum Lee (tenor)
Gypsy / Chernobog – Jin Seok Lee (bass)
Friend of Cherevik – Petar Naydenov (bass)
