GREAT RECORDINGS phase 18

Red Army Chorus and Band

3 92031 2

Mono / Stereo
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Recorded 1956 & 1963

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"The chorus has the quality of tone, the discipline and the love of dramatic effects that we have come to expect from Russian choirs and the soloists are excellent."
(The Gramophone)

These recordings were made in London in 1956 and 1963 while the 200-strong ensemble was on tour, and include many favourites, likely and unlikely, among them ‘Kalinka’, ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’, ‘Annie Laurie’ and ‘If I had a hammer’.

Five of the tracks are new to CD, four have not appeared in stereo before, and the closing rendition of ‘God save the Queen’ (in colourfully inflected English) is published for the first time.

The ensemble’s timbre is unique, and the skill of its fine soloists – some of them singers at the Bolshoi – has to be heard to be believed.

A note by the politician and music journalist Michael McManus makes use of EMI’s and the impresario Victor Hochhauser’s files to throw light on various background aspects: for instance, that the ensemble’s LPs outsold even such Russian legends as Richter, Gilels and Oistrakh; again, a curious request from EMI’s American company for a Christmas album caused veteran producer Walter Legge to ask succinctly ‘whether it would be wise or even tactful to suggest that the repertoire should consist of Christmas songs... we might be suspected of subversive action...’.