Mariss Jansons – Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame

Peter I. Tchaikovsky once confessed that he had put his entire soul into his work on the opera “Pique Dame”. But at first, the composer of “Swan Lake,” “Evgenij Onegin” and the “Symphonie Pathétique” was skeptical as to whether Pushkin’s novella would lend itself to opera, then in 1890, during a stay of almost two months in Florence, he got involved with the story and brought the events surrounding Lisa, Herrmann and Prince Yeletsky to life musically. In the process, he drew a drama that plumbs the depths of humanity, in which gambler Hermann drives Lisa, who adores him, to her death – the Lisa who is promised to Prince Yeletsky, but whom she does not love. In the final card game Jeletzkij defeats the rival and Hermann finally commits suicide under the renewed ghostly appearance of Lisa’s grandmother, from whom he tried to extract the secret of profitable cards: “Life is a game! And good and evil only a dream!”

Who could better interpret the symphonic force, the tonal colors, the musical characterizations of the characters and the emotional mood content of the scenes than Mariss Jansons, who worked for many years in St. Petersburg, the place of the premiere, as conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra! With great connoisseurship, he has assembled for the performance in the original Russian language a cast of singers who are also very familiar with the roles of “Pique Dame” in their native languages, including Misha Didyk as Hermann¸ Tatiana Serjan as Lisa and Alexey Markov as Prince Yeletsky. In addition to the BR-Chor and Symphonioerchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Kinderchor der Bayerischen Staatsoper participates in the live recording from the Munich Philharmonie in the Gasteig.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
“Pique Dame”
Opera in three acts based on the novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin
Libretto: Modest Tschaikowsky

Misha Didyk tenor (Hermann)
Tatiana Serjan soprano (Lisa)
Larissa Diadkova mezzo-soprano (Gräfin)
Alexey Shishlyaev baritone (Graf Tomskij, Slatogor)
Alexey Markov baritone (Fürst Jeletzkij)
Oksana Volkova mezzo-soprano (Polina, Milowsor)
Vadim Zaplechny tenor (Tschekalinskij)
Tomasz Slawinski bass baritone (Surin)
Anatoli Sivko bass (Narumow)
Mikhail Makarov tenor (Tschaplitzkij)
Olga Savova mezzo-soprano (Gouvernante)
Pelageya Kurinaya soprano (Prilepa)

Kinderchor der Bayerischen Staatsoper
chorus master: Stellario Fagone
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
chorus master: Martin Wright
Bernhard Schneider tenor (Festordner)
Kerstin Rosenfeldt soprano (Mascha)

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons conductor

October 2014
Total time: 168’43
BR-KLASSIK 900129, 3 CDs