Music reviews

The Songs and Dances of Death, written by Mussorgsky, are among the darkest and most powerful of songs in the entire Russian repertoire. Taking normally delightful and joyous concepts such as a lullaby, a serenade, a dance and a triumphal march, Mussorgsky creates an otherworldly and grim picture of Death itself stalking through the texture of the songs.

The first of the songs is the Lullaby, in which the worried mother realises that Death is taking her child through the apparent kindness of his "You're tired from crying, and worrying, and loving. Sleep for a while, I'll keep watch for you. You couldn't comfort the child; I can sing a sweeter song..."

The second song is entitled Serenade, where the young maiden suffering from an illness is beguiled by the wooing of Death: "You have beguiled me. Now your ear is enchanted with my serenade, your knight's whispering beckons to you, he has come to claim his final reward: the hour of rapture has arrived. Tender is your waist, rapturous your trembling... Oh, I shall smother you in my mighty embrace: listen to my tender murmurings! Be still!... You are mine!"

The third is the Trepak (Russian Dance), where Death whirls up a tipsy peasant in a wild dance, leading him to lie down to rest in the snow where she, Death, will take "a blanket, snowy and billowy; with it [she'll] cover the old man, like a baby..."

The fourth song, The Field-Marshal, is in my opinion the grimmest of all. In the aftermath of a terrible battle, when the fields are full of the wounded and the dead, "Death appears; and hearing the cries and prayers amidst the silence, filled with proud satisfaction, like a field-marshal, she circles 'round the field. Climbing a hill, she looks around, stops, and smiles... And over the plain of carnage the deathly voice is heard: 'The battle is over! I have defeated all! All you warriors have submitted to me! Life caused you to be enemies, but I have reconciled you! Fall into rank, dead ones! In solemn parade pass before me, I want to count my troops; then you will bury your bones in the earth and rest there sweetly from the pleasures of life! Years will pass one after another, unnoticed, people's memory of you will fade.'" Then comes the grim reminder: "... your bones can never escape the shadow of the grave..."

These terrible, terrifying songs are powerfully and evocatively performed by quite a number of absolutely wonderful singers, including the great Chaliapin, the never-to-be-forgotten Christoff, and the excellent baritone Sergei Leiferkus, to name but a few. But two of my favourite recordings are those sung by a contralto and a soprano respectively. The outstanding contralto, Ewa Podleś, has a voice of unusual power and richness, with low notes like the sounding of a bell. The soprano Galina Vishnevskaya is rightly a legend, a singer with an amazing ability to get her voice into the skin of what she is singing. Both of these remarkable performers sing these grim songs with such chilling interpretation that the very kernel of the words and music creates a dark and sombre knell within the heart.

These songs are best listened to with a glass of vodka by your side, and a comforting roaring fire may help dispel the chill after listening.