DOWN IN THE VALLEY (RUSSIAN FOLK SONG) - IVAN SKOBTSOV

A beautiful russian folk song “Sredi doliny rovnye“ interpreted by Ivan Skobtsov famous baritone of the Bolshoi Theater. Lyrics in russian, then transliterated, then in english: Среди долины ровныя, На гладкой высоте Цветет, растет высокий дуб В могучей красоте. Высокий дуб, развесистый, Один у всех в глазах; Один, один, бедняжечка, Как рекрут на часах! Взойдет ли красно солнышко — Кого под тень принять? Ударит ли погодушка — Кто будет защищать? ...........Transliterated: Sredi doliny rovnyya, Na gladkoy vysote, Tsvetet, rastet vysoky dub V moguchey krasote. Vysoky dub, razvesisty, Odin u vsekh v glazakh; Odin, odin, bednyazhechka, Kak rekrut na chasakh! Vzoydet li krasno solnyshko — Kogo pod ten prinyat? Udarit li pogodushka — Kto budet zashchishchat? ...........In english: Among the open valley At the height of the smooth Grows, blooms tall oak In a powerful beauty. The high oak, spreading, One is in all eyes. Alone, alone, poor thing How to recruit on the clock. Oh, bored lonely There’s a tree grow Ah, bitterly dashing No dear life to lead. It is not all singers who command the art of delivering to the listeners all the richness of the contents and emotions of the words they sing. Sometimes a singer just admires a musical phrase or tries to show the best qualities of his or her voice, its natural beauty or acquired skill. The words with this approach turn into an accessory instrument that provides the voice with necessary combinations of vowel and consonant sounds. Artists of the Bolshoi Theater understood the words and managed to bring the meaning home. Such was a century-old tradition. That was a school of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Bolshoi Theater itself. The great Shalyapin shook the Italians on their own stage in Italy by a typically Russian ability to bring home to listeners the meaning of what he was singing and to act it. Ivan Mikhailovich Skobtsov (1900 - 1983) was a true master of this art. His voice reproduced every tint, even most subtle, of the meaning of the text. His voice used to laugh and to cry, to grieve for somebody and to make merry, to meditate and to long for somebody. For every word there was a special colour and intonation in his singing. There are many melancholy songs in the russian folk songs, Each is sad on its own way because each tells a special story. Skobtsov does not aspire to show his voice in a most advantageous way. He does not care about it. What is important to him is the notional matter of the song. The skill of singing pianissimo was a great characteristic feature of many generations of the Bolshoi Theater’ artists. There are so much melancholy and fondness and love and compassion and bitter memories in Skobtsov’s pianissimo. There is another very special phenomenon in Skobtsov’s style. When talking to his darling a lyrical hero of the song turns possibly down to whisper, Skobtsov actually does not reduces his voice to whisper but finds an intonation that makes it clear to us: that is a whisper! Skobtsov was a great master of expressive emotional singing. Both Skobtsov’s colleagues in the Bolshoi Theater and music critics noted that he was singing in a most natural way like birds sing. The art of Skobtsov reveals a sound and natural perception of singing as part of life where everything is sensible. This probably explains his amazing style, his taste and a sense of adequacy and conformity.