Alexander Raskatov
Black sun
7 Poems by Osip Mandelstam for Dramatic Soprano and Piano
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Alexander Raskatov
Black sun
7 Poems by Osip Mandelstam for Dramatic Soprano and Piano
- Instrumentation High Voice and Piano
- Composer Alexander Raskatov
- Series exempla nova
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Difficulty Level
- Edition Piano Score
- Publisher Sikorski Musikverlag
- Order no. SI04400
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Description:
In his 22-minute song cycle Black Sun, Alexander Raskatov sets seven poems by Ossip Mandelstam to music – haunting miniatures full of existential fear, metaphysical darkness and fleeting hope. Raskatov dedicated the work to Irina Shostakovich, the widow of Dmitri Shostakovich, with whom he had a long-standing personal friendship: how often did she recite poems to me by heart on the phone, including those by Mandelstam. The chosen texts traverse extreme emotional registers: from the nightmarish Pomogi, gospo to the grotesquely distorted scherzo Ni gomori nikomu to the almost mystical enlightenment in O, kak zhe ja hochu. The finale, Zhil Alexander Herzovich, is a simple line of the song – and at the same time a Hasidian dance in which everything seems to disappear. Raskatov's musical realisation demands the highest virtuosity, vocal flexibility and a wide range of expression from the dramatic soprano voice. The piano part also oscillates between motoric energy and fine-nerved transparency – a duo of radical intensity. The world premiere took place on 29 June 2024 as part of the International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch: with Elena Vassilieva (soprano) and Nathalia Milstein (piano).