The afternoon of the Russian Romance

The August meeting of the club in Symonds Street was dedicated to Russian romances. The idea and the organisation of the concert belonged to E.Tavleeva and S.Batakina. They, as well as the singers with accompanist E.Cook, put their time and effort into organising the concert. The participants wanted to convey to the audience a variety of Russian romance.

Romance is a genre where the poetry and music are equally important and both express deep feelings. Romance as a genre never dates. When you hear a romance, you are overwhelmed with feelings of tenderness, deep sorrow, and love. It is full of sadness and charm. Love is the main theme of the romance. The term "romance" originated in Spain during the Middle Ages, originally denoting a secular song in the Spanish (“Roman”) language. In the late 18th century romance became increasingly popular as a musical-poetic genre in Germany, France and Russia. In Russia, it became popular and appreciated in the 19th century.

Russian romance represents soul and revelation. Aggression is never present. But no matter how exaggerated is the plot of passion, romance is never funny and is always a subject for compassion. Romance was the main genre in the repertoire of many known singers such as Alexander Vertinsky, AllaBayanova, PetrLeshchenko, Fedor Chaliapin, Boris Shtokolov, Eduard Hil, and Galina Kareva. Due to these artists romance became very popular and loved by many in Russia.

Elvira Tavleeva and Svetlana Batakina successfully managed to incorporate poems by Russian poets such as Bella Ahmadulina, Anna Akhmatova, Sergei Esenin, and Alexander Block in the concert and poetry by these authors was presented as opening to vocal performance. Romances were performed by V.Petrov, A. Schneiderman, and G. Isayev. Although all singers had different types of voice and manner of singing they were united by high emotional intensity and a love of Russian romance. Recitation of selected verses of romances between singing items by E. Tavleeva and Batakina added lyrical intimacy of the program of the meeting.

Lyrical and musical composition of the Russian romance ended with an old song "Long Road, but the Night is Moonlit" famous not only in Russia but also abroad. Everybody in the audience joined the singer A. Shnayderman, who sang lead the song.

Judging by the reaction of the audience the meeting featuring Russian romance was clearly a success. The hall was so full that extra chairs were required to accommodate everybody in the audience. Prolonged applause was a tribute of gratitude to the organisers of the meeting E. Tavleeva and S.Batakina, to the singes for their heartfelt performance and to the tireless accompanist E. Cook. We hope to continue these music programs.