“SONGS OF TRAVEL”

On 15 December Vladimir Gromov invites the audience to his recital: at the chamber hall of the theatre the People’s Artist of Belarus will perform song cycles by Gustav Mahler (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen), Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Songs of Travel to words by Robert Louis Stevenson), as well as fragments from Georgy Sviridov’s poem Russia Cast Adrift (to words by Sergei Yesenin), the works of Franz Schubert and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

As the artist admits, he wanted to sing something special in the recital: “I had performed the chamber vocal programmes before I appeared on the big stage of my theatre. On 15 December, the audience will hear the music that I want to share not out of duty, but at the call of my heart... Yes, I have already sung these vocal cycles before. But you will agree that when we reread a book, we always rediscover it. So are these works that are quite rarely performed in our theatre and in our country: they constantly live in my head, soul, and my heart, and in different years I find something new in these works, which I definitely want to share with the audience, offer them my interpretation and vision. You can’t call these works hits: it is serious music which difficult to perform, these vocal cycles are for mature soloists. It seems to me that each listener will find answers to the questions that concern them now. It’s good if the audience comes prepared, if not, it will definitely not be boring – so interesting the music is. Perhaps someone will get to know the writer Stevenson as a wonderful lyricist.” (smiles.)

Pianist: Natalia Kotova

Hostess: Olga Kazhgalieva