Olga Borodina - None But The Lonely Heart: Tchaikovsky Romances (1994)

This is an excellent disc from one of the best mezzosopranos working during the last couple of decades. It does also, I suppose, present a nice survey of Tchaikovsky’s songs (of which there is quite a number, few of which are well-known) and includes at least the two most famous ones, “None but the lonely heart” and “Once Again, Alone” – and the selection consists of songs from both early in his career (the 1869 set including “None but the lonely heart”) and late ones. However, I would warn against listening through this disc in one go – these songs are pretty much all rather dark and sad and slow, focusing on loneliness, regret, sorrow and longing. Taken a few at a time, on the other hand, virtually every single one comes across as a marvelous gem.

That’s not the least because of the performances. Though most people will, I suppose, best know Olga Borodina from opera, these performances suggest that her talents are just as well if not even better suited to songs; it is hard not to be impressed vividness with which she characterizes the emotional contents of the songs, and the subtle variety in mood she finds across the songs here. Larissa Gergieva is the sister of Valery Gergiev, but as opposed to what you might expect from that, her performances are reflective and lyrical and occasionally almost reticent. In fact, Borodina and Gergieva take these songs pretty slowly but their artistry is definitely up to the challenge this presents.

Indeed, Borodina and Gergieva have chosen an exceptionally dark and serious and emotionally replete approach to songs that are already as haunting and dark as any in the repertoire – it’s pretty remarkable how well they bring the listener along and manage to avoid any sense of self-parody. And in the final three songs they go even further; in “Night” and “The Sun Has Set” Borodina’s voice takes on even darker hues than before, and in the final, familiar “Again, as before, alone” she sounds like death itself – all light and hope is gone and one is left with such pain and horror that the result is almost unbearable; it’s the kind of thing that demands a long period of reflective silence after the end of the recital. A remarkable performance in a collection of remarkable performances. The sound quality is very good. Strongly recommended.