Sergei Rachmaninoff—the last great Russian romantic and arguably the finest pianist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries—wrote 83 songs, which are performed and beloved throughout the world. Like German Lieder and French mélodies, the songs were composed for one singer, accompanied by a piano. In this complete collection, Richard D. Sylvester provides English translations of the songs, along with accurate transliterations of the original texts and detailed commentary. Since Rachmaninoff viewed these "romances" primarily as performances and painstakingly annotated the scores, this volume will be especially valuable for students, scholars, and practitioners of voice and piano.

As in the Tchaikovsky edition, this volume includes the Russian texts to the complete 82 songs of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, including IPA transcriptions with literal and idiomatic English translations. Professor Richter views the publication of these books not only as the fulfillment of an ambition of many years, but also as the filling of a genuine need. Current standards of Russian diction among Western singers leave much to be desired, which is attributable in part to the inconsistent transliterations traditionally used in the publication of Russian vocal music, providing at best a crude approximation of Russian speech sounds. A correct, exact transcription for representing sung Russian to non-Russian singers has long been sorely needed. - Publisher.

Contains phonetic trancriptions, literal and idiomatic English translations. - Publisher.

Naslagwerk van de liedkunst en de literatuur hierover.

This third volume in Professor Richter's series of Russian song texts parallels the first two books of texts by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. The Mussorgsky edition contains his 66 songs as well as 10 second versions of some of the songs. - Publisher.