Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances Piotr Beczala & Helmut Deutsch

• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): 12 Romances, Op. 21, ISR 53:
• 1 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21, ISR 53: No. 4, They Answered 01:48
• 2 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21, ISR 53: No. 5, Lilacs 02:00
• 3 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21, ISR 53: No. 7, How Fair This Spot 02:12
• 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50:
• 4 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 1, Oh No, I Beg You, Forsake Me Not! 02:10
• 5 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 2, Morning 02:07
• 6 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 3, In the Silence of the Secret Night 02:52
• 7 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 4, Do Not Sing, My Beauty 04:34
• 8 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 5, Oh You, my Field 03:53
• 9 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 4, ISR 50: No. 6, How Long, my Friend 02:02
• 12 Romances, Op. 14, ISR 52:
• 10 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 14, ISR 52: No. 1, I Wait for Thee 01:52
• 11 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 14, ISR 52: No. 7, Believe Me Not, Friend! 01:51
• 12 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 14, ISR 52: No. 11, Spring Waters 02:19
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893): 7 Romances, Op. 47, TH 103:
• 13 Tchaikovsky: 7 Romances, Op. 47, TH 103: No. 6, Does the Day Reign? 03:28
• 12 Romances, Op.60, TH 106:
• 14 Tchaikovsky: 12 Romances, Op.60, TH 106: No. 12, The Gentle Stars Shone For Us 03:07
• 6 Romances, Op. 63, TH 107:
• 15 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 63, TH 107: No. 5, The Fires in the Rooms Were Already Out 02:49
• 16 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 63, TH 107: No. 6, O Child! Beneath Your Window 03:25
• 6 Romances, Op. 6, TH 93:
• 17 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 6, TH 93: No. 5, Why? 02:48
• 18 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 6, TH 93: No. 6, None but the Lonely Heart 02:50
• 6 Romances, Op. 16, TH 95:
• 19 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 16, TH 95: No. 5, So What? 03:06
• 6 Romances & Songs, Op. 27, TH 98:
• 20 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances & Songs, Op. 27, TH 98: No. 1 At Bedtime 03:22
• 6 Romances, Op. 28, TH 99:
• 21 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 28, TH 99: No. 3, What For? 02:37
• 6 Romances, Op. 38, TH 101:
• 22 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 38, TH 101: No. 2, It Was in the Early Spring 03:01
• 23 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 38, TH 101: No. 3, Amid the Roaring Ball 02:15
• 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109:
• 24 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 1, We Sat Together 02:27
• 25 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 2, Night 03:24
• 26 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 3, In This Moonlit Night 01:53
• 27 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 4, The Sun Has Set 01:52
• 28 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 5, Amid Sombre Days 01:51
• 29 Tchaikovsky: 6 Romances, Op. 73, TH 109: No. 6, Again, As Before, Alone 02:18
• To Forget So Soon, TH 94:
• 30 Tchaikovsky: To Forget So Soon, TH 94 03:07
• Sergei Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 8, ISR 51:
• 31 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 8, ISR 51: No. 5, A Dream 01:27
• Total Runtime 01:20:47

Info for Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances

Star tenor Piotr Beczala presents a selection of romances by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, together with the acclaimed lied accompanist Helmut Deutsch. The romance was the most popular musical genre in nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century Russia, practised by professionals as well as amateurs. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff both enriched this genre with their lyricism and melodic invention. Elevated by Deutsch’s splendid accompaniment, Beczala delivers these songs with a great sense for the Slavic idiom and meaning of the words, combined with colourful lyricism and italianità, perfectly fitting the Russian and cosmopolitan musical language of these two masters.

Piotr Beczala is one of the most sought-after tenors of his age, both on the opera and concert stage. His Pentatone debut album Vincerò! has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed opera recital albums of the last few years. During the 2021 Opus Klassik Awards, Piotr Beczala was crowned as Singer of the Year for this exceptional recording. Pianist Helmut Deutsch is a first-class song accompanist, working together with the greatest vocalists of today. He makes his Pentatone debut.

“When I first began to study singing at the Katowice Academy of Music, Poland was still under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, and we had very limited access to music scores. Russian music however was readily available and very popular in Poland. It was easy and natural therefore that I quickly turned to the romantic songs of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

“Many years later when I got to work with celebrated pianist Helmut Deutsch on primarily German Lieder, we discovered that we both have a passion for these Russian songs too. They are not only wonderful to sing but the piano parts are also amazing to perform. This music requires the highest level of communication and concentration between the singer and pianist.

“We both strongly feel that the work of these two great composers belongs to world culture — they are landmarks in the history of music that belong to all of us and go far beyond national boundaries. In a similar way that Shakespeare and Beethoven belong to the world too.” (Piotr Beczala)

Piotr Beczala, tenor
Helmut Deutsch, piano

Piotr Beczala
is one of the most sought after lyric tenors of our time and a constant guest in the world’s leading opera houses. The Polish-born artist is acclaimed not only for the beauty of his voice, but also for his ardent commitment to each character he portrays. In addition to his operatic work, he has sung many of the great vocal works with the world’s most distinguished orchestras and maestri.

Since his debut as Duca in 2006, Piotr Beczala has been a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera. Since then, he has sung Prince (Rusalka), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Rodolfo (La bohème), Vaudémont (Iolanta), Riccardo as well as the title roles in Roméo et Juliette and Faust. In 2011 he accompanied the Met to Japan and made his role debut in 2012 as Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. In 2016 he made his debut as Lohengrin at the Semperoper Dresden alongside Anna Netrebko under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann. In addition, the Vienna State Opera’s Kammersänger performed at the famous opera house as Werther in Werther, as Ein Sänger in Der Rosenkavalier and as Don José in Carmen, among many other roles. Other highlights include Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo) at the Zurich Opera House and Massenet’s Werther at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. The tenor can also be heard regularly at the State Opera in Munich, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid and at La Scala in Milan.

In addition to his opera career, Piotr Beczala is a much sought-after concert and lied singer. In 2020-21, Piotr Beczala sang together with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, gave a beneficial concert at the Konzerthaus Vienna, at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw and went to the Auditorio in Bilbao. He also joined the stage with Plácido Domingo for a gala concert at the Bolshoi-Theatre in Moscow and was part of the Met Stars Live in Concert series with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky (January 2021). He sang Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orquesta Nacional de España under the baton of David Afkham at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Grafenegg Festival, gave a concert with soprano Camilla Nylund at the Brixen Classics Festival and sang at the famous Concert de Paris at the Eiffel Tower on July 14th, 2021. Recital tours took him with pianist Sarah Tysman to Spain and with pianist Camillo Radicke to South America. Further concert appearances have taken him to Baden-Baden, Amsterdam, Madrid, Budapest, Vienna, Milan and Oman.

In 2014, Mr. Beczala was awarded at the ECHO Klassik Awards as “Singer of the Year” as well as the Opus Klassik for the same category in 2021. In 2019 he was honoured as Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and received an honorary doctorate (Dr. h. c.) from the Katowice Academy of Music in 2022.

Helmut Deutsch
ranks among the finest, most successful and in-demand song recital accompanists of the world. He was born in Vienna, where he studied at the Conservatory, the Music Academy and the University. He was awarded the Composition Prize of Vienna in 1965 and appointed professor at the age of twenty-four. Although he has performed with leading instrumentalists as a chamber musician, he has concentrated primarily on accompanying in song recitals. At the beginning of his career he worked with the soprano Irmgard Seefried, but the most important singer of his early years was Hermann Prey, whom he accompanied as a permanent partner for twelve years. Subsequently he has worked with many of the most important recital singers and played in the world’s major music centres.

Deutsch has recorded more than a hundred CDs. In recent years the development of young talent has been especially close to his heart. After his professorship in Vienna he continued his teaching primarily in Munich at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, where he worked as a professor of song interpretation for 28 years. In addition he is a visiting professor at various other universities and is sought-after for an increasing number of masterclasses in Europe and the Far East. The young Swiss tenor Mauro Peter was one of his last students in Munich and has become one of his favourite recital partners.

Booklet for Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Romances