Excellent debut recital
05/13/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is an excellent recital, with Gergiev's sister on the piano. Shtoda seems on the way to becoming a big name opera star.The only reason that this gets 4 stars not 5 is that EMI chose to issue the original red and white 'Debut Series' release without texts or translations, something later remedied with a new cover (featuring Shtoda in an ethereal grey photo), but with the same catalogue number.Anyone wanting a better documented introduction to Russian song might be better off with the Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky or Glinka discs by mezzo Lina Mkrtchyan on Opus111 (cyrillic script), or the 'Russian Romance' series by tenor Larin on Chandos (cyrillic again), or the 'Russian Images' recitals by bass Savenko on Hyperion (romanized script)."