NI7950 Various: Alexander Kipnis (1891 - 1978)

NI7950 Various: Alexander Kipnis (1891 - 1978) - Victor Recordings 1945/6

Label - Nimbus Prima Voce

Cat. No. - NI7950

Including RUSALKA, Dargomïzhsky - Miller's Aria; YEVGENY ONEGIN, Tchaikovsky - Prince Gremin's Aria; PRINCE IGOR, Borodin - Prince Galitsky's Aria, I hate a dreary life; SADKO, Rimsky-Korsakov - Song of the Viking Guest; Mussorgsky - Song of the flea; BORIS GODUNOV, Musorgsky Introduction & Opening Chorus; Coronation Scene; Varlaam's song - Once upon a time…Come now comrades, fill up your glass; I have attained the highest power; Duologue between Boris and Shuysky…Clock scene,; Give me air, I suffocate; Farewell & Death of Boris

In the search for suitable and evocative words to describe a particular vocal quality, usually, for the bass voice one would expect of course adjectives like deep, black, sonorous, cavernous, thundering, impressive or even noble. Rarely is the word beautiful used. However, in the case of Alexander Kipnis, it most certainly applies.

Alexander Kipnis was born into a very poor family in Zhitomir, Ukraine on l February 1891. They were very proud of the extraordinary quality of his singing voice, which attracted the attention of a visiting cantor from Bessarabia, who heard him as a soloist in the local synagogue choir. So taken was he by the boy's natural talent, that, with a promise of some payment, the cantor persuaded Alexander's mother to let him leave home and become a chorister at his synagogue.

Alexander was befriended by one of the older singers with whom he lodged and who taught him the rudiments of music and also some Lieder. Kipnis then won a scholarship to enter the Warsaw Conservatoire, initially to study conducting, but of course he continued to sing, his voice having broken and become a bass. He decided to move to Berlin, undertaking further vocal studies with the well-known teacher Ernst Grenzebach.

This compilation is a tribute to one of the greatest bass voices ever to have recorded.
Price: £6.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

Quantity: