Sergei Rachmaninoff: Romance "Kak mne bolno" op. 21 No. 12 arr. for piano solo by Alexandr Shefer
Performed by Christian Dillig (piano)
The present recording reproduces an arrangement of Rachmaninoff's last piece "How much its hurts" from the 12-part Romances cycle, which Rachmaninoff composed in 1902 shortly before his wedding. The Romances belong to the same creative phase with a corresponding harmony as the 2nd Piano Concerto op. 18, which was completed two years earlier, and the well-known Piano Preludes op. 23, which were composed soon after. This highly expressive Romance was arranged by Alexandr Nikolayevich Shefer (1866 - 1914), opera conductor in St. Petersburg and arranger of numerous songs, by whom I have already recorded the piano arrangement of Rachmaninoff Romance Ya ne prorok (I am not a prophet) • S. Rachmaninoff: Romance op. 21 No. 11 "Ja... . The text is by W. Satine. It is odd that Rachmaninoff completed this work with its painful text, which is more like an elegy, in the weeks before his wedding.
Lyrics (Translation below)
Kak mne bol'no, kak khochetsja zhit'...
Kak svezha i dushista vesna!
Net! ne v silakh ja serdca ubit'
V `etu noch' golubuju bez sna.
Khot'-by starost' prishla poskorej,
Khot'-by inej v kudrjakh zablestel,
Chto-b ne pel dlja menja solovej,
Chtoby les dlja menja ne shumel,
Chtoby pesn' ne rvalas' iz dushi
Skvoz' sireni v shirokuju dal',
Chtoby ne bylo v `etoj tishi
Mne chego to muchitel'no zhal'!
Translation/Transmission
(by Muslim Magomayev https://lyricstranslate.com/en/kak-mn...
How painful,
How I want to live...
How fresh and fragrant is the spring!
No! I have no strength to kill the heart
On this sleepless and sad dark night.
Though I wish old age would rush my way,
Though I await for frost to dust my hair,
So a nightingale wouldn't launch in song my day
And forest its secret murmurs share,
So a song from my soul wouldn't tear away
And through the lilacs into vastness dare.
So I wouldn't languish sorely today
In the emptiness of this silent air!
(Another translation from Philipp Ross Bullock here:
https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/2511)
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