At Bedtime


  • Recorded: September 2017
  • Record Place: Dvorana Concert Hall in the Academy of Performing Art, Bratislava
  • First Release: 2019
  • (P) 2019 SUPRAPHON a.s.
  • Genre: Vocal

Artists

  • music by: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • original lyrics by: Nikolay Platonovich Ogaryov
  • bass: Jozef Benci
  • piano: Jana Nagy-Juhász

Album

Jozef Benci, Jana Nagy-Juhasz

Russian Romances

Catalogue Number: SU 4262-2
Published: 14th June 2019
Genre: Vocal
Format: 1 CD
Jozef Benci - bass, Jana Nagy-Juhász - piano

In the 19th century, composers sought inspiration in poetry, the simplicity and modesty of folk songs. Romances reflecting on loneliness, betrayed love and the misery of the abandoned occupied a special position in Russian lyric poetry in the first half of the 19th century, represented by A. S. Pushkin and other writers. Based on the Romantic poets' works, composers expressed their own intimate feelings, as well as muted defiance. One of the first to have written romances was Mikhail Glinka, the founder of the Russian nationalist music school. A whole generation of his successors, including P. I. Tchaikovsky, embraced the genre, creating numerous romances, mainly set to contemporary Russian poetry. Especially noteworthy among such works is M. P. Mussorgsky's cycle Songs and Dances of Death, made up of four pieces depicting the horror and bizarreness of death, referred to by the composer as "danse macabre".
Jozef Benci is a highly esteemed opera and oratorio singer, a soloist of the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, who has worked with the Czech Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, performed with Edita Gruberová and other renowned artists. Owing to his robust, yet highly sensitively led voice, a remarkable sense for songs' intimate nature, as well as an immaculate diction, he is a brilliant performer of Russian romances.

The profundity and emotionality of Russian romances encompassed in Jozef Benci's voice

Reviews

“Slovak artists, Jozef Benci, bass, and Jana Nagy-Juhász, piano, give their all in performances that will remain with the listener for some time afterwards. Benci’s honest, secure vocal production, drawing from deep within and with little or no recourse to vibrato, is complimented by his partner‘s sensitive participation. Always more than mere accompaniment, it reinforces and underscores the strong feeling and range of powerful emotions in the songs.”
Atlanta Audio Club, August 2019

“This release offers an excellent program of Russian songs, for the most part beautifully and expressively rendered, and is recommended. ”
Fanfare, May 2019

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
1. Doubt 04:49
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
2. O do not tempt me 03:54
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
3. For Molly 03:48
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
4. Say not that your hearte is pained 02:27
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
5. Don't ask me to speak 03:35
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
6. Gentle stars were shining upon us 03:53
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
7. At Bedtime 03:40
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
8. Nicht 05:01
Boris Sergeyevich Sheremetyev
9. I loved you 02:31
Aleksandr L'vovich Gurilyov
10. A little bird has flown away 01:38
Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky
11. Deep Remembrance 03:32
Cesar Anrtonovich Cui
12. The Statue at Tsarskoye Selo 01:31
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Songs and Dances of Death
13. Lullaby 05:41
14. Serenade 04:32
15. Trepak (Russian Dance) 05:29
16. Field Marshal 05:55

Linked video