#007
Ivan Didenko sings "A Birch Tree in a Field Did Stand" (Beryozonka) with the Alexandrov Ensemble, conducted by B.A. Alexandrov, at the Albert Hall, London, 1963.
Translation of notes on original recording:
"There's a bushy birch tree standing in the meadow; no one ever pays any attention to it. I'll go down to the birch, break off a twig and make myself a flute to play on." The refrain is an untranslateable play on words. Tchaikovsky used the melody of this song, with some variations, in the Finale of his fourth symphony.
As far as I know, the usual 1963 recordings of this, repeated on most CDs, were made at the Abbey Road studios in London, but this recording of the live Albert Hall concert itself is rarely heard. This recording was put onto tape, then vinyl for sale in Russia, then later digitalised in Russia, so it has come on a long journey to us here on Youtube.
The Albert Hall was the only indoor space big enough for the Ensemble in 1963. It's a huge and very high circular space, holding at least 5,500 people - and it was full at that concert. The acoustics are famously so difficult that the audience up in the "gods" hear the music long after they see the conductor wave his baton, or the drummer beat his drum. Yet this recording is, I think, more satisfying than the studio recordings.
Didenko, a soloist of the choir, had already recorded this song during the Ensemble's previous visit to London in 1956. This part of Didenko's repertoire was inherited by Nicolay Gres, a soloist of the Ensemble, when he joined the Ensemble in about 1963/64. If you compare Gres' recording, you can hear the Russian musical tradition of imitating a singer as an homage and then trying to sing even better in the same style.
• Russian Red Army Choir - The Birch Tree
Didenko on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandr...
Albert Hall 1963 playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
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