Nóchka (from Six Choruses for Treble Voices, op. 15)

Conductor Notes:

Not sure why it took me 29 years to consider programming this suite of six short secular pieces (written in 1895) with piano, but I was really happy that I finally did. They were the centrepiece for our May 2016 concert “In the Abbey Garden”. The writing is mostly 2-part and the piano is, not surprisingly, the driving force behind the variety and subtlety of mood. I’m particularly fond of #2 (Night). Musica Russica sells an excellent language recording and, even with that, my singers had to put in a lot of time mastering the text before it started to take shape for them vocally.

See also an entry about the entire suite, under “Six Choruses”.

For SA Chorus and piano

Sung in Russian

2. Night
   Poem by Vladimir Ladyzhensky (1859-1932)

Softly night comes in on dusky wings,
taking flight across the land,
and from somewhere drifts a dreary song,
drifts a song made dark by a tear.
Go away, you melancholy tune.
Soon the night will fall away.
The triumphant resurrected day
will bring happiness to all.
Meanwhile, weary dreamers are renewed
in the mystery of sleep.
Crimson dawn will seep across the sky
and dissolve itself in blue.