khankonchak's video: Boris Gmyria- O cease thy singing maiden fair Rachmaninoff

Boris Gmyria (1903-1969) While many Soviet-era singers (i.e. Mark Reizen, Maxim Mikhailov, etc.) have become fairly well-familiar to record collectors, other artists of formidable reputation in their native land remain unknown to most Western listeners. Such is the case of Ukrainian bass-baritone Boris Gmyria, who was born in the town of Lebedin in 1903 and spent most of his career far from the major musical centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. As a young man he studied at the Kharkov Construction Institute and began formal vocal training relatively late, graduating from the Kharkov Conservatory only in 1936. That same year, however, he was accepted into the Kharkov Opera Theater, where he made his debut as the Sultan in Gulak- Artemovsky's "The Zaporozhye Cossacks beyond the Danube". By 1940 Gmyria had become a member of the Kiev Opera, where he remained for the next 17 years, and it was during this tenure that he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR (1951). He was greatly admired by colleagues and composers alike- the latter included Dmitri Shostakovich, who chose him for the premiere of his 13th symphony, "Babi Yar" (Gmyria eventually demurred). Gmyria's reputation is not based only on his operatic interpretations. He was also esteemed for his considerable skill in the art song genre, with a repertoire that included everything from Schubert's "Winterreise" to Rubinstein's "Persian Songs". His talents are much in evidence in the example I've selected for Gmyria's Youtube debut: the well-worn Rachmaninoff romance "Ne poi, krasavitsa" ("O cease thy singing, maiden fair"), Op.4, No.4, with text by Aleksandr Pushkin. Gmyria is a master of painting with words, imbuing each phrase with gentle longing and nostalgia. The sound is utterly smooth and liquid, glowing softly like molten metal, while the singer's legato is simply flawless, recalling Reizen's "bel canto" manner of singing. Gmyria's voice also remains under complete control at all times, as can be heard in both the sustained head tones and the composer's evocative melismata. And while Gmyria's pianissimos do not quite match the haunting quality of Shtokolov's, they are quite beautiful in their own right. He is acompanied here by Lev Ostrin; unfortunately, I do not know the date of the recording. For those interested in further investigating Gmyria's singing, I would recommend his 1962 recording of Rimsky-Korsakoff's opera "Mozart and Salieri", available on the Lys label.