Tara Kamangar: Glinka/Balakirev "The Lark"

From "East of Melancholy" (Delos Release, 2014) www.delosmusic.com
Perf. by Tara Kamangar www.tarakamangar.net / Dir. by Matthias Heuermann www.form-art.tv
Known as the "Father of Russian Classical Music," composer Mikhail Glinka was raised in Russia with a cosmopolitan upbringing, studying a variety of subjects and languages, including English, German, and Persian. While studying music abroad in Europe as a young man, Glinka saw the opportunity to combine the Russian songs he heard at home with Germanized harmonization. Glinka studied composition in Berlin for five months before returning to Russia at the news of his father's death.
Glinka went on to write two operas based on stories of Russian history which elegantly incorporated elements of Russian folk music. The operas were panned by audiences, whereupon Glinka decided to return to Europe, saying “I don’t want to have anything to do with Russian music- any more than with Russian winters....May I never see the damned country again.” Within less than a year, in 1857, he died in Berlin.
**"The Lark" was originally written for voice and piano by Glinka, and later arranged for piano by his protégé Mily Balakirev. The translated lyrics to the original song are as follows:
Between heaven and earth
The song spreads
Sounding ever
Stronger and stronger.
The wind carries the song
To whom it does not know
But knowing that she for whom it is meant
Will recognize from whom it comes.
One cannot see this singer of the fields
Who sings so loudly
Seeking his mate,
The lark with his ringing song.
Go my song
Song of sweet hope
To one who will remember me
With a secret sigh.
(Poem by Nestor Kukolnik, English translation by Molly Liem)