Tcherepnin: My Flowering Staff Inna Dukach & Tatyana Kebuladze

• Alexander Tcherepnin (1899 - 1977):
• 1 My Flowering Staff: Epigraph, Op. 17 No. 1 01:10
• 2 My Flowering Staff: No. 1, O God of Days, Do Not Release Your Violins, Op. 15 No. 3 01:55
• 3 My Flowering Staff: No. 2, If Only I Could Hear, Op. 15 No. 4 01:06
• 4 My Flowering Staff: No. 3, I Contemplated You, O Andromeda 01:44
• 5 My Flowering Staff: No. 4, How Damned Is My Beloved Life, Op. 15 No. 2 00:52
• 6 My Flowering Staff: No. 5, The Millstones Have Cooled, Op. 15 No. 5 01:09
• 7 My Flowering Staff: No. 6, I Love the Feminine Water 01:10
• 8 My Flowering Staff: No. 7, Forgive Me the Enticing Mist 01:13
• 9 My Flowering Staff: No. 8, Farewell, Night!, Op. 15 No. 6 01:06
• 10 My Flowering Staff: No. 9, The Struggle to Voice Words, Op. 15 No. 1 01:10
• 11 My Flowering Staff: No. 10, In Agitation, as I Touch the Morning Lyre, Op. 16 No. 2 01:14
• 12 My Flowering Staff: No. 11, I Am Dreaming of the Country, Op. 16 No. 5 01:00
• 13 My Flowering Staff: No. 12, In the Wild Forest, Op. 17 No. 2 01:21
• 14 My Flowering Staff: No. 13, My Soul Is Happy to Hear 01:24
• 15 My Flowering Staff: No. 14, Some of the Songs in My Soul 01:37
• 16 My Flowering Staff: No. 15, Perhaps Life Is Broken in Half, Op. 17 No. 3 01:32
• 17 My Flowering Staff: No. 16, In the Evening Quiet Hour 03:30
• 18 My Flowering Staff: No. 17, I Know Only One Thing About God, Op. 17 No. 5 01:26
• 19 My Flowering Staff: No. 18, Lost Souls!, Op. 17 No. 9 01:51
• 20 My Flowering Staff: No. 19, My Endless Grief, Op. 16 No. 8 01:42
• 21 My Flowering Staff: No. 20, The Happy Laughter, Op. 17 No. 8 01:56
• 22 My Flowering Staff: No. 21, With Tormented Spirit, Op. 16 No. 4 02:24
• 23 My Flowering Staff: No. 22a, Piano Solo 02:01
• 24 My Flowering Staff: No. 22b, O Angry Idle Voice 01:30
• 25 My Flowering Staff: No. 23, Improbable Sunsets 02:44
• 26 My Flowering Staff: No. 24, I Do Not Know How to Be Cruel 01:14
• 27 My Flowering Staff: No. 25, The Arrogant Silence of Evening Rivers, Op. 17 No. 7 01:43
• 28 My Flowering Staff: No. 26, If You Want, Take From the Universe, Op. 16 No. 6 01:17
• 29 My Flowering Staff: No. 27, I Beg, I Sing, I Adjure, Op. 17 No. 6 01:39
• 30 My Flowering Staff: No. 28, For More Than Ten Centuries 01:11
• 31 My Flowering Staff: No. 29, The Flags Were Waved, Op. 17 No. 4 01:13
• 32 My Flowering Staff: No. 30, To Sit Endlessly and Weave, Op. 16 No. 3 03:10
• 33 My Flowering Staff: No. 31, The Solemn Dance 01:19
• 34 My Flowering Staff: No. 32, Again, I Have a Desire, Op. 16 No. 7 01:11
• 35 My Flowering Staff: No. 33, Melancholia of the Winter Day 02:09
• 36 My Flowering Staff: No. 34, My Covenant With the Almighty, Op. 16 No. 1 01:05
• 37 My Flowering Staff: Epilogue, Op. 17 No. 10 00:50
• Total Runtime 57:48

Info for Tcherepnin: My Flowering Staff

This recording hides a remarkable detective story. In 1925–26 the French publisher Heugel brought out three volumes of 24 songs by the young Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899–1977), all setting poems by the ‘Acmeist’ Russian poet, Sergei Gorodetsky (1884–1967) – Tcherepnin’s Opp. 15, 16 and 17. Not until 2014, when Tatyana Kebuladze, the pianist on this recording, examined the composer’s manuscript in the archives of the Sacher Foundation in Basel was it realised that those three recueils were the tips of a much larger iceberg: a cycle of 35 settings of the 37 poems in Gorodetsky’s collection My Flowering Staff, plus an anonymous epilogue – one of the most extensive song-cycles in musical history. The songs themselves are audibly in the tradition of Tchaikovsky and other such Romantic Russian composers, but with a degree of psychological insight conveyed through the harmonic piquancy typical of the new century.

Russian-American soprano Inna Dukach made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2018 in the title role of Madama Butterfly, and in 2010 she made her debut with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Musetta in La bohème. Born in Moscow, she was raised in New York, earning an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Smith College in Massachusetts, and her Masters in Vocal Performance at Mannes College of Music in New York. After winning the 2005 Liederkranz Competition, she joined the roster of New York City Opera and sang Mimi in La bohème there for two consecutive seasons in 2006 and 2007. This album marks her recording debut.

A native of Kyiv, the pianist Tatyana Kebuladze studied with Tamia Kozlova, and graduated from the Glière State Music College in her home town, the alma mater of Vladimir Horowitz. Arriving in America in 1998, she continued her studies, earning a Master of Music degree at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she now serves on the piano faculty.

Inna Dukach, soprano
Paul Whelan, bass
Acmeist Male Choir
Tatyana Kebuladze, piano

Inna Dukach
Ms. Dukach began the 2019-2020 season as Matilde Neruda in Virginia Opera’s production of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino. Previously, she made her debut as Antonia/Giulietta/Stella in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Nashville Opera, sang the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Inland Northwest Opera, and appeared on the concert stage as a soloist for Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Portland Symphony (Maine).

During the 2017-2018 season, Inna Dukach made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, traveled to Taiwan to sing Mimì with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, and created the role of Ina in the world premiere of Steal a Pencil for Me with Opera Colorado. During the 2016-17 season, she appeared with NYCO as Zemfira in Aleko, the Russian Chamber Art Society, and joined both the Lubbock Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic as Mimi in La bohème.

In the 2015-2016 season, she debuted with Florentine Opera as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and the previous season included her debut with Anchorage Opera as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, a matinee performance of that role with Atlanta Opera, and a return to Pensacola Opera as Mimì in La bohème. In concert, her schedule included a season opening gala of Russian operatic repertoire with Dayton Opera, and a New Year’s Eve concert with the Lancaster Symphony.

The soprano’s engagements in 2013-2014 included a role and company debut with Kentucky Opera as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, the Dvorak Stabat Mater with the Albany Symphony, and the title role in Il segreto di Susanna with Boston’s Odyssey Opera. Her 2012-2013 season saw performances of Violetta in La traviata with Opera Omaha, as well as in concert with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Toledo Opera.

Ms. Dukach made her London debut at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Musetta in La bohème. She was chosen to sing the role of Mimì in La bohème for two consecutive seasons at New York City Opera, and recently returned to the role for her debut with Opera Colorado. She has also appeared as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro for Hawaii Opera Theatre; Walter in La Wally with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for Opera Hong Kong; Liù in Turandot for the Savonlinna Opera Festival; Tatiana in Eugene Onegin with Opéra Lyra Ottawa; Violetta in La traviata with the Croatian National Opera; Dorotea in Conte’s Don Chisciotte with the Caramoor Festival; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with both Orlando Opera and with Opera Carolina; Xenia in Boris Godunov for San Diego Opera; and Caroline Gaines in Margaret Garner with Opera Carolina. Previous seasons also included debuts with the Israeli Opera, as Nedda in Pagliacci; Dayton Opera, as Mimì in La bohème; Pensacola Opera, for her role debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly; New Orleans Opera, as Nedda and the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana; Opera Colorado, as Rosalba in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas; and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, as Mimì.

She made her Alice Tully Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra as Aljeja in Janácek’s From the House of the Dead, and her Carnegie Hall debut in a program of Rutter’s Magnificat and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. Other concert highlights have included a concert of Gluck arias with Opera de Oviedo in Spain; the Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Hartford Symphony; Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder with Theater Pforzheim in Germany; Songs of Yiddish Poetry, as well as the Verdi Requiem with the Brooklyn Philharmonic; the Dvorak Stabat Mater and Brahms Requiem with the Greenwich Choral Society; the Mozart Requiem with the Saratoga Choral Festival; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Smith College Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer Of 1915 with Bay Shore Lyric Opera.

Inna Dukach received her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from Mannes College of Music, and her Bachelor’s Degree from Smith College.

Booklet for Tcherepnin: My Flowering Staff