SOMM Recordings presents a seductive and captivating release of Russian art songs, an intriguing juxtaposition of Russian Romances for voice and piano by Anton Arensky (1861–1906) and his student Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943). The recital, “performed with great charm and sympathy” (Opera Today), features two artists making their debut for SOMM: lyric coloratura soprano Anastasia Prokofieva – a rising young star in the opera world, described as “striking” by Opera magazine – and London-based conductor, pianist, and vocal coach Sergey Rybin, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under SOMM recording artist, Malcolm Martineau.

Sergey Rybin’s excellent notes, together with full texts and translations, help bring these neglected gems to light and highlight the inner connection between Arensky and Rachmaninov. While there is no doubt that Rachmaninov was possessed of a unique and innate musical gift, he acknowledged the profound influence of his teacher and mentor, Arensky, who was his professor of harmony, counterpoint, and free composition at the Moscow Conservatory between 1885 and 1888, when Rachmaninov was still a teenager.

Arensky’s writing – and Rachmaninov’s, too – is full of eminently singable melodies that are deeply connected both to bel canto and to a Russian folk aesthetic. Sergey Rybin also makes the point that a certain virtuosic flair in the piano parts of these románsy, by both the professor and the pupil, “are unmistakably the branches of the same stylistic tree.”

Anton Arensky studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, and he was just twenty-one when he began teaching harmony and counterpoint – and, later, instrumentation and free composition – at the Moscow Conservatory. While his role as a teacher may well be his most lasting contribution, he remained active as a composer of operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and piano works. He also wrote fifty-seven románsy, which show his affinity for intimate, emotional expression. Included amongst the thirteen art songs by Arensky on this release are the Five Romances, op.70, from 1900, and the five-song cycle Reminiscence, op.71, circa 1905.

Before Rachmaninov left Russia permanently in 1917, he composed a total of eighty-three románsy for voice and piano. His gift for lush melodies, expansive emotional range, and exceptionally difficult piano works makes him one of the last great Romantic pianist-composers, and these stellar qualities are evident in his art songs. Thirteen are presented on this programme. The earliest, from his Six Songs, op.8, written in 1893, include Child! You are as beautiful as a flower and Dream. The Twelve Songs, op.21, composed in 1902, include some of his finest vocal writing, Lilacs being an exquisite example. Rachmaninov’s last compositions in the genre of románsy were the Six Songs, op.38, in 1916; four from this set close the recital.