Raskatov, Alexander: Black sun

Seven poems by Osip Mandelstam

for dramatic soprano and piano

In his 22-minute song cycle Black Sun, Alexander Raskatov sets seven poems by Ossip Mandelstam – haunting miniatures full of existential fear, metaphysical darkness and fleeting hope. Raskatov dedicated the work to Irina Shostakovich, the widow of Dmitri Shostakovich, with whom he had a long-standing personal friendship: „How often did she recite poems to me on the telephone, including those by Mandelstam, by heart?" The chosen texts range through extreme emotional registers: from the nightmarish Pomogi, gospo to the grotesquely distorted Scherzo Ni gomori nikomu to the almost mystical enlightenment in O, kak zhe ja hochu. The finale, Zhil Alexander Herzovich, is a simple song line – and at the same time a hasidic dance in which everything seems to disappear. Raskatov's musical realisation demands the utmost virtuosity, vocal flexibility and breadth of expression from the dramatic soprano voice. The piano part also oscillates between motoric energy and fine-nerved transparency - a duo of radical intensity. The premiere took place on June 29, 2024 as part of the Internationale Schostakowitsch Tage Gohrisch: with Elena Vassilieva (soprano) and Nathalia Milstein (piano).