Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov.(Sound Recording Review)

[] Zareska; Christoff, Gedda, Bielecki, Borg; Russian Choir of Paris, French National Radio Orchestra, Dobrowen. 1952. No libretto. Pearl GEMS 0188 (3) (Koch, dist.)

A generation of Westerners grew up with this performance as "the" Boris. Fifty years have shifted taste away from Rimsky's orchestrations, but as a memento of Boris Christoff's vivid artistry at its peak, this set merits attention. Patterning himself after Chaliapin to some extent, Christoff attained comparable stage dominance as Boris. Here, the Bulgarian bass conscientiously uses three types of declamation to characterize his three disparate roles: grand yet human as the tsar, hushed and reverent as Pimen, elementally intense as the rough Varlaam. Yet few bass voices "speak" as unmistakably personally as Christoff's, burnished with emotion as much as majestic scale, and more attentive to dynamic variety than any successor. His Boris, occasionally over-the-top in parlando passages, is magnificent when singing; the Pimen rivals any yet recorded.

Eugenia Zareska's sensuous mezzo also takes on multiple duties: Fyodor and Marina, both done with appropriate character. Nicolai Gedda begins his part (Grigori/Dmitri) in the rapturous voix mixte that remained for decades as much this tenor paragon's trademark as his superbly pointed Russian diction. Rarely, if ever, has a major singer made such an assured recording debut.

Kim Borg's ...