Pauline Viardot-Garcia

Pauline Viardot sings russian songs 2

These melodies are a remarkable example of the rich cultural cooperation between Russia, France and Germany. The corresponding song texts were much appreciated in Russia. Turgenev read these works in the Viardots’ salon near Paris. It was probably he who suggested to Pauline that they be set to music in the original language. This two-volume collection of trilingual Russian-French-German scores brings together various sources whose manuscripts and engravings date back more than 130 years. Among
of these compositions are two first publications: Bild, schön ohnegleichen… and The Watchman.
The documents were collected, adapted and translated into Russian by Marie-Hélène Pierre, Bachelor of Musicology at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, Nataliya Shinkevich, translator, and the pianist Laurent Martin. The German translation was done by Ingrid Mayer. The poems were translated by Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (1819-1892) (except Bild, schön ohnegleichen… and Licht und Schatten)