| View Larger Image | Russian Favourites | Audio CDVasily Agapkin (Composer), Aleksandr [Tenor Vocal] Aleksandrovich (Composer), Boris [Conductor] Alexandrov (Composer), Anonymous (Composer), Russian Anonymous (Composer), Matvey Blanter (Composer), Lev Konstantinovich Knipper (Composer), N. Kool (Composer), A. Novikov (Composer), Yury Alexandrovich Shaporin (Composer), Vasily Pavlovich Solovyov-Sedoy (Composer), Russian Traditional (Composer), Victor Feodorov (Composer)
| List Price: | $8.99 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 1 to 2 days |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Studio: | Naxos | | Release Date: | April 23, 1996 | | Sales Rank: | 34,434th |
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TRACK LISTING |
Disc: 1
- Track 1: Farewell of Slavianka
- Track 2: O Field, My Field
- Track 3: We Are the Red Calvary
- Track 4: There, Far Away, Beyond the River
- Track 5: Sacred War
- Track 6: There March the Soldiers
- Track 7: In the Forest by the Combat-Line
- Track 8: Sun Set Beyond the River
- Track 9: Chorus of Soldiers [From the Opera DeCembrists]
- Track 10: Volga Boatman's Song (Ey Ukhnem)
- Track 11: Troika
- Track 12: Cliff
- Track 13: Hey, There's the Village
- Track 14: Volga Burlack's Song
- Track 15: Dark Eyes (Ochi Chernye)
- Track 16: Brave Don Lads
- Track 17: On the Road (A Soldier's Song)
- Track 18: Moscow Nights
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 17 reviews)
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Fantastic by Ryan Jones (Chandler, AZ USA)  5 Stars
July 21, 2009
This is one of the best Red Army Choir cd's around. The variety of songs is excellent and epic. The sound recording on this disc is better than any of the other ten albums of theirs that I have. For the love of Bog in his high heaven, buy it.
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Did you grow up with Russian grandparents? by John Spritz (Portland, Maine)  4 Stars
April 20, 2009
Did they play Chaliapin for you? Recordings of the Red Army Chorus? Did you know "Song of the Volga Boatmen" before you knew "My Darling Clementine"? Then this CD is for you! Makes anyone misty-eyed for Mother Russia, the black bread and vodka.
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Terrible CD quality by M Spocky (Colorado)  1 Stars
November 25, 2008
In order to be able to listen to this CD you need to keep your hand on the volume button and turn it up and down constantly. Otherwise you either don't hear anything or it breaks your ears.
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Fairly Good by Caleb Kohl (Minnesota) 4 Stars
January 14, 2008
The songs are great, but the issue is the quiet beginnings of several songs. In order to hear the first 40 seconds of a few songs you must turn up the volume (high), then when the song hits the loud chorus, you must turn the volume back down. This is the only real problem... but if you can live with that, the music is great, the first two songs are fully loud and amazing... worth the CD by themselves.
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Russian Military Choral Singing At Its Very Best! by James Yelvington (USA) 5 Stars
October 26, 2007
This is by far the best CD of Russian Army singing I've found! The quality is excellent, both as to singing (with great accompanying band) and recording. Naxos has outdone itself in its attempt to capture ideally the musical spirit and character of the Russian Army. If you want to hear proud (but often sensitive), robust young men making beautiful, ear-catching, distinctively Russian music, then this is for you! And the program is full of variety and contrast, not only touching on the courageous patriotism of men facing battle, but also the sadness, tenderness, and longing they feel as they think of faraway homes, sweethearts, and family. There really is not a moment of ho-hum listening here!
Now a word as to authenticity or trueness-to life. This is not the rough music-making you might hear in the barracks, in the drinking hall, or on the march by some random bunch of soldiers. Not at all! With time the Red Army Choir and Band have become quite professionalized groups of trained and talented musicians, a far cry from military singing groups of yesteryear. The result is a program of truly fine Russian military and folk-style music performed with artistry and spirit: a real winner.
I seldom hear Russian army music without thinking of when as a teenager I first heard the Don Cossack Choir in performance. It was quite a musical revelation, exciting and enjoyable, with subterranean basses (oktavists), baritones, and high tenors singing their hearts out and even whistling and dancing at times. They basically sang unaccompanied and tonality became a rather slippery thing. It was a great experience, but not necessarily artistically refined, as you might expect from a group originally made up of émigré soldiers who had fought the Bolsheviks and lost. The present CD provides all the spirit and character of that earlier group without the musical shortcomings.
As to the songs themselves, they are a mixed bag, though all are quite Russian, or at least Soviet. Ten are march-style (1,2,3,5,6,8,9,13,16,17), #5 being a march in 3/4 time. Most are composed, with only five being basically folk-songs. Most have a definite military connection, though six (10,11,12,14,15,18) do not. Most are patriotic at least in a general sense, being centered upon the country, its peoples, and its cultural heritage. Most are strictly choral, though some feature soloists as well (bass soloist in 10,12,13,15; tenor in #11).
Someone has mentioned the soloists' singing deficiencies. I thoroughly disagree. I think the bass and tenor soloists are excellent indeed. True the tenor's voice does very briefly (but obviously) crack on a high note toward the end of track 11. That can and does happen to all strong tenors at one time or other (even Pavarotti). Still the tenor sings beautifully and brilliantly; he need not apologize for anything here. (You could argue that the recording engineers should have fixed it up somehow, but I don't feel the need for it.)
Others have complained about the low volume levels at certain points. Frankly, I neither understand nor support those views. That some parts are very soft indeed while others are ear-ringers merely shows the large dynamic range of the groups, hardly a fault, as I explain later. The arrangements and instrumental performances are artistic and appropriate. The singers, both solo and choral, do a beautiful job of presenting the music effectively, excitingly, and often endearingly. What more to ask?
A number of the pieces begin at an ear-straining pianissimo, build to a fortissimo climax and then wane away to nothing. The intended effect, I believe, is to present the experience of a listener who hears a distant military troop gradually approaching until it passes by in full strength and then, again gradually, recedes into the distance. It makes a lot of sense when you consider how this music might have been heard over the years.
I urge you, don't let the budget price of this CD lead you to think it's in any way inferior. It is really as fine a disk as you could expect at any price. If you like Russian singing with a military flavor you are going to be thrilled by this!
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