Boris Gmyrya – Ukrainian Songs vol.1

Boris Gmyrya was born in the small Ukrainian town Lebenin. At an early age Boris performed a lot of Ukrainian folk songs. At the age of 11 he started to work as an office boy, at 16 he worked as a stevedore, stoker and sailor. 

 In 1927, after a course at a worker’s faculty, he entered the Kharkov Construction Institute. An active participant in local theatres, Gmyrya soon began to be known for his remarkable voice. He studied in the class of Prof. Pavel Golubev at the Construction Institute. In 1936, while still at the conservatory, he joined the Kharkov Opera Theatre. He made his debut as Sultan in Gulak-Artemovsky’s Ukrainian opera Zaporozhye Cossack Beyond the Danube. He first gained recognition in 1939 winning a first prize at a nation-wide vocalist’s competition, which was followed by his first tour through the country. His repertory of 36 roles included Gremin, Boris, Sobakin in Rimsky-Kosakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Miller in Dargomyzhsky’s The Mermaid and a number of character roles. He was an excellent Salieri in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Mozart and Salieri. As a recitalist on the concert platform as well as in radio broadcasts, he gained even more attention in songs by his favorite composers Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Schumann, Grieg, Dvorak as well as in Ukrainian folk songs. Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, Schubert’s Winterreise (!), Rubinstein’s Persian Songs and the Shostakovich songs were performed as complex musical dramas. 

Extremely popular in his country, he was given the title of “Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian Republic” in 1941 and “The People’s Artist of the USSR” in 1952. The same year he was awarded a State Prize, and in 1966 he received an Order of Lenin.

Tracklist:

01. trad.: Gude viter / The Wind Sings
02. Lysenko: Reve ta stone Dnipr shirokiy / The Wide Dnipr Roars and Moans
03. Lysenko: Chego meni tyazhko / Why is it So Painful?
04. trad.: Chuesh, brate miy / Can You Hear Me, Brother?
05. Lysenko: Uchitesya, brate moi / Learn, My Brothers
06. trad.: Bezmezhne pole / Boundless Field
07. trad.: Ot sela do sela / From Village to Village
08. Za dumoyu duma / One Thought After Another
09. trad.: Vecheri na dvori / Evening
10. Stepovoi: Lysenko: Koli razluchayutsya dvoye / When Lovers Part
11. trad.: Oy, u poli viter viye / Oh, the Wind Blows in the Field

Boris Gmyrya – Ukrainian Songs vol.1

(320 kbps, front cover included)