Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances (Bonus Track Version)

The Polish tenor partners with one of today’s most celebrated song-pianists for a program of Russian songs, repertoire they both clearly admire, and which deserves much wider attention. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff were both masters of melody, which is evident in every one of these 31 songs. Listening to Beczala and Deutsch is like dropping in on a salon concert in Imperial Russia. Beczala brings intimacy and depth of tone to Rachmaninoff’s beautiful “Lilacs” while “They Answered,” from the same Opus 21 group, shows off his upper register and his gift as a storyteller. Tchaikovsky’s popular “None but the Lonely Heart” is sung with a particular sensitivity to text, also apparent in the heartfelt “Again, as Before, Alone.”