Performed by Christian Dillig (www.christiandillig.com)
The present piece is the best known of the 6 Romances op. 8 for voice and piano by the then 20-year-old Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943). The piece is based on the love poem "Du bist wie eine Blume" (You are like a flower) by the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) in an artistic translation into Russian by the Russian poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev (1825-1893): Дитя! Как цветок, ты прекрасна (Child! Thou Art as Beautiful as a Flower). Rachmaninoff dedicated the romance to a friend, the singer Mikhail Slonov (1869-1930). The piece was interpreted by famous singers and pianists
(e.g. Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Mikhail Arkadiev
[ Ссылка ]
Hibla Gerzmava - Ekaterina Ganelina
[ Ссылка ]
Elisabeth Söderström - Vladimir Ashkenazy
[ Ссылка ])

This romance is the only one of the six arranged for piano by Liszt's pupil Alexander Siloti (1863 - 1945), incidentally an older cousin of Rachmaninoff. Siloti was a piano pupil of Anton Rubinstein and later also of Nikolai Zverev, who subsequently also taught and supported Sergei Rachmaninoff by letting Rachmaninoff, who came from a penniless family, live with him. From 1883 to 1886 Siloti was a pupil of Franz Liszt. Siloti was a gifted pianist. In addition, he appeared as an arranger mainly of works by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

Orginial German text by Heinrich Heine:

Du bist wie eine Blume,
So hold und schön und rein;
Ich schau dich an, und Wehmut
Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.

Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände
Aufs Haupt dir legen sollt,
Betend, daß Gott dich erhalte
So rein und schön und hold.

(You are like a flower
So bright and beautiful and pure;
I look at you, and sadness
Creeps into my heart.

I feel as if I should lay my hands
On your head,
Praying that God may preserve you
So pure and beautiful and bright.)

Russian Transcription by Aleksey Pleshcheyev:

Дитя, как цветок ты прекрасна,
Светла, и чиста, и мила.
Смотрю на тебя, и любуюсь,
И снова душа ожила...

Охотно б тебе на головку
Я руки свои возложил;
Прося чтобы Бог тебя вечно
Прекрасной и чистой хранил.

(Child, you are as beautiful as a flower,
fair, pure and sweet.
I look at you and admire you
and my soul comes to life again ...

I would like to lay my hands
on your head;
I pray that God will keep you forever
beautiful and pure.)

#rachmaninoff #romance #sheetmusic

свернуть