"As fair as day in blaze of noon, as night mysterious." So the poet describes the distant and unattainable loved one in the verses of the song we're listening today. The author is Nikolai Minski, a respected Belarusian poet, also known for his work as a translator of poets such as Byron, Shelley, or Verlaine, or works such as The Iliad. In 1887, Minsky published a cycle of eight poems, From the oriental, the last one of which is As fair as day in blaze of noon. O, in the original language, Она, как полдень, хороша (Ona, kak polden, khorosha).
Nearly ten years later, in 1886, Sergei Rachmaninoff set this poem into music, the ninth of twelve songs included in his Op. 14, the third compilation of songs after Op. 4 and Op. 8. All three collections are considered his youth songs; in total, twenty-four romances among the about eighty he composed, all of them before 1917, when, at his forty-four, he left his beloved Russia.
In my opinion, Ona, kak polden, khorosha is one of Rachmaninoff's most beautiful songs, and if something characterises the composer's songs, it is the beauty of the tunes. I find it very special; his quietness and rhythm have something of a hypnotic, and, if many of his songs evoke traditional Russian air, as smoothed as you like by the composer's sophistication, it seems to me more obvious in this. Several authors, however, attribute this exotic air to the East to which Minsky sings. I guess everything depends on where we place the East.
The calmness that I told you come, on the one hand, from its slowness. Also, from the structure of the vocal line: each verse of the poem corresponds to a musical phrase that generally varies little and slowly. Another characteristic of the voice are melisms (i.e. several notes sung on the same syllable), most present in the second stanza, when the poetic voice focuses on its feelings. The most obvious case, which will not go unnoticed, is the interjection that encloses the sixth verse, this "Ah!" like a sigh that lasts three compases. The singer's sentences are separated by (roughly) a measure in which we hear the piano; a longer interlude separates both stanzas of the poem. The accompaniment plays pianissimo throughout the whole song, which contributes to the oniric atmosphere.
Rachmaninoff composed the Twelve romances, Op. 14 for different voices; ours, in particular, was written for mezzo-soprano or baritone, and dedicated to the famous singer who premiered it, Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya, also known for having suggested to Tchaikovsky the composition of Eugene Onegin (thank you, Mrs Lavrovskaya!). We'll listen to Ona, kak polden', khorosha in a version that I like very much, that of baritone Andrei Bondarenko and pianist Iain Burnside. As I usually do, I'm adding the original text for those of you who can read and enjoy it.
After the two long articles I published the previous weeks, I managed to write a shorter article this week, I know there are readers that prefer it. That's why, this week, I just wanted to share with you a song that I like so much. I hope you like it too.
Ona, kak polden', khorosha,
Ona zagadochnej polnochi.
U nej neplakavshija ochi
I nestradavshaja dusha.
A mne, ch'ja zhizn' bor'ba i gore,
Po nej tomit'sja suzhdeno. O!
Tak vechno plachusheje more
V bezmolvnyj bereg vljubleno.
As fair as day in blaze of noon,
As night mysterious she keepeth
No tears of grief she ever weepeth,
All sorrow yet to her unknown.
My heart, with world's affliction aching,
in vain for love of her is fired, ah!
As billows ever stronger
Will woo the shoreland, long desired
(English version by Edward Agate)
Она, как полдень, хороша,
Она загадочней полночи.
У ней неплакавшия очи
И нестрадавшая душа.
А мне, чья жизнь борьба и горе,
По ней томиться суждено. О!
Так вечно плачушее море
В безмолвный берег влюблено.
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