Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Yulya

Artist: Yulya
LP: Journey Into Russia
Song: "White Nights (Belyie Nochi)"
[ listen ]

As my mother always used to say, "When the chips are down, a Russian woman is willing to give up just about everything but her hat—for she would be naked without it." According to my translator, the song I've selected here outlines the entire plot of this [1985 Taylor Hackford film]. Here are some notes and review quotes from the back of the record:

"...Russia spreads out widely..." — this is a line from the popular
Soviet song, Far Away, Far Away, that opens this album. Yulya
takes you as your personal guide on an exciting musical
journey through Russia.


You will start your journey from Moscow where Yulya herself was
born after the revolution and spent the biggest part of her life.
And in the song, Love In Moscow, with words and lyrics written
by Yulya herself, you will walk with her in the Gorky Park of Culture
and Rest, down Gogol Boulevard, and in other places well known
to Muscovites. The broad and fertile Ukraine will be your second
stop and there Yulya will take you back to the troubled times
of the civil war and you will watch together the mad ride of a
young machine gunner with his red-maned horses as Yulya sings
Tachanka, a famous Russian song arranged by her in a rhythm not
unlike the twist. Odessa—fabulous seaport on the Black Sea, home
of some of the greatest musicians of the world, will welcome you
next with the tender and wistful ballad, Golden Lights. And from
there you will board a ship and sail across the Black Sea while
listening to an old and famous Russian sailor song in waltz
rhythm—Broadly Stretches the Sea
.

Your first port of call on this voyage will land you in the country
of the Kuban cossacks—the North Caucasus—where you will be
entertained by a famous Soviet humorous love song from the postwar
cinema, The Kuban Cossacks. The song's title is Such As You Were
.

And then—with the first song of the second side of the album—
you will proceed on to legendary Georgia where Yulya will introduce
you to the story of the young Georgian lover who is seeking his
beloved—the song Suliko.* From warm and sunny Georgia you
will fly all the way across Russia to Lake Baikal to follow the
musical story of the lucky escape of a young prisoner from exile
in the mountains of Akatui—a folk song entitled Holy Baikal which
dates from prerevolutionary times, outstanding for its beautiful
melody line. And, next, on to Western Siberia where you will
proceed on a slow and painful march beside a column of pre-
revolutionary Russian exiles led by prison guards and chanting
their mournful song, Clink-Clank, in a rhythm to the clinking of
their chains. Then comes a complete change of pace—a fast
joking song about a lovesick girl from the northern Urals,
entitled Beyond the River Kama
.

Further west again you will find yourself on the famous Volga
River—at the city of Gorky where a beautiful waltz called On the
Broad Volga will carry you away on its wings
.

And the last stop before you leave Russia—mysterious and
romantic Leningrad, where you will wander in the white nights
beside June lovers along the rolling Neva River and through
the slumbering summer garden of the Tsars, a popular public
park. This song, for which Yulya herself wrote both music
and lyrics, is entitled White Nights
.

Yulya chose the repertoire of this album from among hundreds
of Russian popular and folk songs beloved by all the people of
Russia written about those places to which she takes you in the
course of this record. It is her own very personal choice—intended
to leave with the listener a vivid impression of the rich cultural
variety and musical heritage of the Russian land. Yulya's arrangements
for this particular album blend, like Yulya herself, East and West.
They combine the depth and richenss of the Russian soul with the
dymamic, rhythmic style of modern Western European
and American popular music
.

The exciting story of fascinating and provocative Yulya, in private
life Julie Whitney, is told in the recently published book by her husband,
Thomas Whitney, entitled Russia In My Life (
Reynal and Co.).

Yulya was born in Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution, raised
under the Stalin regime, got a thorough musical education in the
Soviet capital, and achieved early recognition in Russia during
World War II as a young and talented composer and singer. Her
musical career in Russia was cut short when she met and
married her American foreign correspondent husband. It took
nine years for the Russian-American couple to get permission
for Yulya to leave her own country. Their romance and plight
had become an international cause-celebre. The news of their
release, after Stalin's death, at the insistant urging of the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow, was a frontpage story
.

Though Yulya spent all her life in Moscow until 1953, when she
first came to the United States, she is now a thoroughly sophisticated
New Yorker and declarees she feels as if her beloved Manhattan
had always been her home
.
[ *"Suliko" is a Georgian word meaning darling. ]

* * * * * * *

"Yulya is superb; her husky, intimate voice...raises visions of small,
smart sad little boites. This record is solid and highly satisfying
entertainment." --High Fidelity


"...An excellent voice spiced with an exotic flavor..."
--Variety


"Yulya is a real discovery..." --Hugh A. Mulligan, AP

"...relaxed assurance... She sings in a low-keyed, slightly
breathless manner that is effectively expressive and quite
winning in its simplicity and directness."
--John S. Wilson, The New York Times


* * * * * * *

This recording will never be obsolete. You may play it on all
33 1/3, long-playing phonographs and high-fidelity systems,
regular or stereo.

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