100Singers's video: 100 Singers - GEORGY VINOGRADOV

Georgy Vinogradov, Tenor (1908-1980) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: EUGENE ONEGIN "Kuda, kuda vi udalilis" ("Where have you gone, o golden days of my spring?") Conducted by Nikolai Golovanov / Recorded 1945 My personal opinion: "A neglected tenor who rivals the best that Russia has produced, with a sad wistful quality that is a joy to hear. The voice is almost erotic in its sensuality; heartbreaking in its sadness ..." - UK writer John T. Hughes in 'Opera On Records'. "Has the Lensky aria ever been done more poetically, more stylishly and with such beauty of tone? The voice of the Russian tenor Georgy Vinogradov arches and falls, sighs, murmurs and calls out, bringing the young poet Lensky to life as no one else has", wrote annotator Larry Friedman in the booklet of the CD album 'The Russian Legacy'. This release was a special gift: It was the first chance in the West to hear this almost forgotten tenor in selected scenes. My personal first encounter with his voice took place five years ago: He sang one of my very favorite arias: "Elle ne croyait pas" from Ambrois Thomas' MIGNON (an opera based only on a short part of the Goethe novel). The track was an item of the CD anthology 'Voices Behind The Iron Curtain'. Finally a few months ago I discovered Vinogradov's 1951 Russian sung recording of DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN. I was bewitched by the quality of his singing, the perfect suppleness and naturalness of his expression - and immediately I decided to collect all of his recordings as far as available. Very cautiously I dare to suggest, I've never heard a more beautiful sung MÜLLERIN since the days of Fritz Wunderlich - notwithstanding the fact that Vinogradov recorded his version nearly a decade before the great German tenor. Let's go back to the introductory quotation of John T. Hughes, who compared Georgy Vinogradov with the best Russian tenors. After all, these were Leonid Sobinov (1872-1934), Dimitri Smirnov (1882-1944), Ivan Kozlovsky (1900-1993) and Sergei Lemeshev (1902-1977). Compare them to each other, and you will surely notice common features: Bright and clear silvery voices, paired with a strange melancholic longing. It almost seems, only a land like Russia - historically marked by opressions, resistances and revolts - could produce such touching tenor voices: Proudly radiant and humble and introverted at the same time. It is a mentality that is also mirrored in the music of the great Russian operas and traditional folk songs. Between 1943 and 1951, Vinogradov projected with his warm-hearted singing the Russian soul as a soloist in the famous Soviet Army Chorus, the Alexandrov Ensemble. As a very busy national radio singer he rose to fame in Moscow. Although he never stood on an opera stage, he performed in radio concerts of DON GIOVANNI, Massenet's MANON, many Russian operas and the said MIGNON as Wilhelm Meister - his most brilliant role. Georgy Vinogradov's performances of Wilhelm's two great arias ("Elle ne croyait pas" and "Adieu, Mignon") are among the most beautiful documents of immaculate tenor singing on records at all. A special affinity he had for the romantic song cycles from the first half of the 19th century - besides Schubert's MÜLLERIN, Vinogradov also recorded an enchanting rendition of Robert Schumann's DICHTERLIEBE. Vinogradov was an elegiac singer, not a boastful hero like Bogdan Sobinin in Glinka's A LIFE FOR THE TSAR or Grigoriy in Mussorgsky's BORIS GODUNOV. Once again John T. Hughes: "Gregory Vinogradov is the best Wilhelm Meister of my knowledge. He does not sound quite as lamenting as Ivan Kozlovsky and not quite as warm as Sergei Lemeshev, but the wistful tone of his voice is moving - and fits exactly to the role." Vinogradov was what the French call a 'ténor leger' and the Italians a 'tenore di grazia', a graceful, flexible and light tenor. But without a stage career, it is not easy (in my view) to put him at the side of Kozlovsky and Lemeshev; however it's impossible to ignore him, if there is any discussion about the most amazing Russian tenor voices of all time. You have never heard Russian songs and folklore if you haven't heard Georgy Vinogradov singing Matwei Blanter's 'Katyusha' (Little Catherine) or the romance 'Ochi chyornye' (Black eyes). And even a charming rendition of a harmless operetta song from DER BETTELSTUDENT ("Ich knüpfte manche zarte Bande") shows what is achievable with good taste and style: The little gem (albeit sung in Russian) is a lesson for all today's skin-deep operetta tenors. Georgy Vinogradov's voice was limited in range and volume, but one so beautiful that every note and phrase is worthwhile to hear. Still the past is a valuable source to make surprising discoveries ...