Where Are You, My Brothers?

Where Are You My Brothers

Dmitri Hvorostovsky's voice is at its amazing, beautiful, passionate best. He seamlessly moves from silken pianissimo to forte, conveying all the tragedy and futility of life lost through war, the false hope and despair of soldiers who have trudged too far and seen too much death, destruction and experienced too much pain, fear and hunger. August 4, 2005

songs of courage, loneliness, patriotism

Of my nearly 20 Dmitri Hvorostovsky albums, this one is in the Top 3, which has Dmitri singing in quite a different style than what he is most famous for, as one of the great operatic singers of our era, and this CD is far from the "opera singer does crossover CD" type of recording, which can sometimes be quite awful, but sings softly and with intense passion and sincerity, his dark honey toned baritone perfect for these melodious, gorgeous songs.
Though the focus of the songs is WWII, some were written as early as 1905 ("The Hills of Manchuria"), to the wonderful "Cranes" from 1969, and "Somewhere Far Away" was the title for a TV series ("17 Moments of Spring"), about a Russian spy in Nazi Germany, that was shown in 1973.

Some songs are more sublime than others, like "Unexpected Waltz" and "On a Nameless Hill", but there isn't a single composition that isn't filled with beauty and performed to perfection. Hvorostovsky has a voice that is a gift of God, with the technique of a master, and the soul of a true artist.
He is backed brilliantly by Constantine Orbelian and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the folk group Style of Five, and the rousing sound of the Spiritual Revival Choir of Russia.
The booklet insert is excellent, with liner notes, bios, lyrics in English and transliterated Russian; the sound is good and total playing time is 57'28.
August 2, 2004

The most beautiful male voice there is

The sound of very beginning phrase of it's first song "Somewhere Far Away" grabbed me. This title song for TV series was sung in his natural voice rather than operatic singing. I found it absolutely beautiful. Have you ever heard Dmitri's speaking voice? Renee Fleming quoted "Dmitri has the most beautiful male voice I've ever heard". Well I must say many of us have to agree with her. This album is a good collection of war time songs that indicate harsh reality of soldier's life and emotional state. He expressed them very eloquently. Text has translations but you can feel the depth without it. These songs are melodious and tuneful, I liked his flexible singing of forte to exquisite pianissimo. This is not just sell out for Russians but to everyone. As a Japanese, we grew up in Russian folk songs were heard everywhere. It's nice he introduced us to further extension of Russian materials. Evidently his colaboration with his father and Orbelian worked well. I also appreciate the lightness of "Katyusha" is a nice bonus. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I recomend it to everyone. I hope I get to hear these in his recital someday.

I attended his recent opera(War and Peace /Onegin) and recital in Tokyo. This was his first public performances in Tokyo, yet he was extremely popular here. He received mountain of flowers and presents, and for autograph session, nobody seemed to left the house. His high quality of vocal art, stylish and expressive singing and at most striking impact on his stage presence were overwelming. I hope he'll come back again. December 26, 2003

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