This first volume in what one hopes will be a comprehensive survey of Glinka’s songs is very welcome indeed. It includes about a quarter of his total output, and encompasses some of the most popular pieces, such as the charming, touching “Cradle song” from A farewell to St Petersburg and the marvellous Pushkin setting I recall a wonderful moment. Leiferkus sings these with a gentle, lulling tone and the secure grasp of phrasing that saves the former from any hint of sentimentality; he can also summon up a more vigorous tone with a hint of a rasp in it for the “Bolero”, and can lighten this without loss of character so as to rattle off the highly entertaining, and very difficult, “Travelling Song”. David Brown, author of the standard English-language study of the composer (Mikhail Glinka; London: 1974), agreeably suggests in his insert-notes that this song, of 1840, may be the first ever railway music. Primitive research, which railway enthusiasts should be able to correct, tells me that Russia only began her railway network in the 1830s, so it must be true of that country, at any rate. Leiferkus sets off at a tremendous pace; his pianist, Semion Skigin, makes sure that everything stays on the rails (I suppose one has to say).
Apart from the Pushkin setting, these songs are all from the collection of Nestor Kukolnik poems, A farewell to St Petersburg. They include “The lark”, which Leiferkus sings gracefully: though not the greatest of Glinka’s songs, it has been one of his most popular for its early use of Russian local colour. In a good many of the others the Russian element is more latent, though, despite the Italian and especially French manner, they really do possess a Petersburg elegance. There is a great deal to enjoy and admire here, and further instalments are keenly awaited.
