Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Russian Songs from the War Years

The Concert is in a giant Hall yet the intimacy with the audience is unbelievable! The music & arrangements are spectacular! Buy this video you will be happy you did & you will never tire of watching it.

The Cardiff Singer of the Year (1989) has become The Singer of his generation. I had to have this video after seeing the great Dmitri in "the role he was born to play" (NYTimes), Eugene Onegin, as transmitted live into theaters.

His voice is astounding in this program of relatively simple songs....resonate, expressive, effortless, deep and moving, equal to his Onegin. Similarly, watching this famously handsome, charming artist as he brings these songs to life doubles or triples the impact.

I have been a fan of Dmitri for some time and was fortunate to see him live in Sydney, Australia twice in one year and hope that one day he will return again. This DVD is a marvellous concert performed in the Kremlin with a great orchestra and combined choir. As always Dmitri charms the audience with his truely sparkling voice and flashing smile. He is amongst his countrymen here and the camera focusses on the many people young and old in the audience who are smiling, clapping, cheering and often reduced to tears by his singing.

The DVD is based on his popular CD of war songs, many are based a waltz them and all Russians know them. a personal favorite of mine is the Cranes, which was written in the 1970's 30 years after WWII. Few today in the west can appreciate the tremendous losses experienced by the then USSR and that without the Russian front we would all now be speaking either German or Japanese. The people of all the Russias remember their losses and are justifiably proud of their country and fallen comrades. Once again through his singing Dimtri is educating the west on the variety, beauty and charm that is Russian vocal music.

Perhaps one day we will see a perfomance of the three Russians with Dimitri, the tenor Nicolai Baskov (the golden voice of Russia) and perhaps the St Petersburg or Alexandrov (Red Army) Choirs. That would be the concert of the century.

As we say in Australia, do yourself a favour and buy this DVD you won't be disappointed.

I have three Dmitri Hvorostovsky's recordings: portrait, verdi arias, and this one, and this one stands out the most to me. He has a very rich, beautiful voice, and you can feel his emotion when his voice comes out. He really feels the music VERY deeply, much more than the verdi works and other arias I think. The music itself is not about beautiful romance or love, fairy tales stories like most opera storylines, it really has a very strong picture of world war II time and Dmitri's singing 100% successfully make these scenes even stronger. It consists of tears, blood, flesh, loves and relationships between family, lovers, friends, etc. For example, the first piece "Soldiers are coming" really have a picture of an army walking through fields to the war, all soldiers are thinking of their families or lovers, and they have a very strong will to defeat the enemies in order to go back home. So do other pieces. Plus Dmitri's stage performance also very good, especially his singing posture, young vocalists I think should learn more from him. The choir is also excellent, they do not let Dmitri "steal all the fun" too. It definitely worth ur money to buy this DVD, and it is a very good way get to know more about Russian music.

I attended a performance by Dmitri Hvorostovsky at Davis
Symphony Hall on Sunday, January 22, 2006. His program
was in two parts - Part One: Arias from Russian operas and
Part Two: Songs from Where Are You, My Brothers?

I was so impressed with the songs from "Where Are you, My
Brothers?," that I knew that I had to buy the DVD. I also
brought his CD "Passione di Napoli."

I have been very fortunate to see Mr. Hvorostovsky in all
his operatic performances with the San Francisco Opera
Compnay. In my opinion he is one of the major singers
that is currently singing before the public. He has been
blessed with a truly beautiful voice. To me the human voice
is the most beautiful instrument in the world. His also
has stage presence-along with his good looks. A great singer!