Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net
Swan Lake Duet?
Soem years ago I heard a duet sung to the melody of an adagio from Swan Lake. I thought this to be a love duet from the discarded opera Undine. Can anyone enlighten me if this is correct and has recordign ever been made? I heard this on the radio some years ago but never noted the details.
Of course the piece may not be genuine.
Regards
John Keedy
No, your memory isn't playing tricks on you, John. Tchaikovsky re-used some of his music for Undine (1869) in Swan Lake (1875–76), and in the second act of the ballet, the Andante non troppo section of the scene between Siegfried and Odette (in G♭ major) served as the music to the final duet of Undina and Huldbrand in the destroyed opera
Although the duet wasn't among the few fragments of full score surviving from Undina, Tchaikovsky's sketches for the scene have survived, and Vissarion Shebalin used them to reconstruct the duet in 1958. This reconstruction was recorded on LP in 1963 by Tamara Milashkina and Evgenii Raikov with the All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, conducted by Evgenii Akulov, and it's almost certainly what you heard. I'm not sure whether it was ever re-issued with the other "genuine" extracts from Undina that were recorded at the same time, but hopefully someone else will let us know whether that's the case....
Brett Langston
I know the CD of Undine (Fragment from the Unfinished Opera in 3 Acts, 1869).
VoxBox (CDX5117)
1．Introduction
USSR Radio Large Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Gauk, Conductor
2．Undine’s Aria
3．Undine and Huldbrand’s Duet
4．Finale of Act 1Undine: T.Milashkina, Soprano / Huldbrand: E.Raikov, Tenor Opera Chorus and the USSR TV and Radio Operatic and Symphonic Orchestra
Yevgeni Akulov, ConductorKenji Sugiyama
Japan
Thank you, Kenji. The piece in question is track 3, "Undine and Huldbrand's Duet", which confirms that it has been re-released on CD.
Brett Langston
Following an advice by Kenji Sugiyama, I have found the "Undina" CD listed on the following webpage:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/rimsky/varieties/russian_operas/russian_tchaikovsky.html
To my disappointment however, there is no link to the ordering page. And so far I have been unable to acquire this CD.
Can someone help to find a website that advertises this CD for sale ?
Alexander Geidelberg