''The Poet's Echo'' (Russian title: ''Эхо поэта'') is a

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

composed by

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

(191376) in August 1965 during a holiday visit to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, in

Dilizhan Dilijan ( hy, Դիլիջան) is a spa town and urban municipal community in the Tavush Province of Armenia. The town is one of the most important resorts in Armenia, situated within the Dilijan National Park. The forested town is home to numer ...

, Armenia. It consists of settings for high voice and piano of six poems by the Russian poet

Alexandr Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈ� ...

(17991837), in their original language. It was published as his Op. 76. The cycle is dedicated to his Russian friends

Galina Vishnevskaya Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya (russian: links=no, Галина Павловна Вишневская, Ivanova, Иванова; 25 October 192611 December 2012) was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist o ...

("Galya") (soprano) and her husband

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...

("Slava") (cellist, pianist and conductor). Britten had previously dedicated several compositions for cello to Rostropovich. He had wanted Vishnevskaya to sing the soprano part in the 1962 premiere of his ''

War Requiem The ''War Requiem'', Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The ''War Requiem'' was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was b ...

'', but the authorities had refused her a visa to travel outside the Soviet Union. ''The Poet's Echo'' was first performed in public by the dedicatees at the

Moscow Conservatoire The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...

on 2 December 1965, by which time the composer had returned to England. A typical performance lasts about 15 minutes. The songs are: # "Эхо" ("Echo") # "Я думал, сердце позабыло" ("My Heart") # "Ангел" ("Angel") # "Соловей и роза" ("The Nightingale and the Rose") # "Эпиграмма" ("Epigram") # "Стихи, сочинённые ночью во время бессонницы" ("Lines Written During a Sleepless Night") Vishnevskaya has said that Britten "had succeeded in penetrating the very heart of the verse"despite the fact that the composer had little Russian, and was working from a bilingual edition of Pushkin's poetry. She recalled a memorable evening in autumn 1965 when the tenor

Peter Pears Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career started ...

and Britten tried out the songs at the

Pushkin House The Pushkin House (russian: Пушкинский дом, Pushkinsky Dom), formally the Institute of Russian Literature (), is a research institute in St. Petersburg. It is part of a network of institutions affiliated with the Russian Academy of ...

: "The room was cloaked in semi-darknessonly two candles burned. ..The moment Ben

ritten Ritten (; it, Renon ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy. Territory The community is named after the high plateau, elevation , the Ritten or the Renon, on which most of the villages are located. The plateau forms t ...

started to play the prelude f "Lines Written During a Sleepless Night" which he had written to suggest the ticking of a clock, Pushkin's clock began to strike midnight, and the twelve strokes chimed in synchrony with Ben's music. We all froze. I stopped breathing and felt my scalp prickle. Pushkin's portrait was looking straight at Ben. He was shaken and pale, but didn't stop playing." Pears confirmed the incident is his diary, though in somewhat drier terms: "Pushkin's clock joining in the song. It seemed to strike more than midnight, to go on all through the song, and afterwards we sat spell-bound".

References

Song cycles by Benjamin Britten 1965 compositions

Poetry by Aleksandr Pushkin {{Cat more, Aleksandr Pushkin Pushkin, Aleksandr Pushkin, Aleksandr Works by Aleksandr Pushkin ...

Classical song cycles in Russian {{Classical-composition-stub