2014 Program Notes, Book 7 43
Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26, 2014
destruction carried out under his leadership, he was immortalized as a folk hero
in song and story, a figure of protest and independence who was seen as an early
progenitor of the rebellion against royal rule that reshaped the country in 1917.
The Execution of Stepan Razin
is one of Shostakovich’s most powerful utterances,
harsh, angry, unflinching about presenting the tensions between the Russian people
and their rulers, as Mussorgsky had been in
Boris Godunov
. This “poem” for
bass, chorus and orchestra is played out continuously across several scenes: the
description of the boisterous crowd in Red Square; the arrival of Razin (with the
bass soloist acting as both narrator and the condemned man); the execution (by
beheading, in Yevtushenko’s version); the order by the czar’s soldiers for the people
to dance in celebration; and the chilling closing scene, in which Razin’s severed head
mocks the emperor.
SOLOIST AND MALE CHORUS
Kak vo stol’noi Moskvye byelokamyennoi
In fair white-stoned Moscow a thief
bor po ulitsye byezhit s bulkoi makovoi.
runs down the street with a poppyseed roll.
Nye strashit yevo syevodnya samosud.
Mob rule does not frighten him today.
Nye do bulok ...
Rolls don’t matter ...
Sten’ku Razina vezut!
They’re bringing Stenka Razin!
Tsar’butylochku mai’vazii vydaivayet,
The czar swills malmsey from a flask,
pyered zerkalom sveiskim pryshch
before the royal mirror squeezes a pimple,
vydavlivayet,
primeryayet noviy persten’-izumrud
and tries on a new pearl signet-ring
i na ploshchad’...
and in the square ...
Sten’ku Razina vezut!
They’re bringing Stenka Razin!
Kak za bochkoi bokastoi bochonochek,
Just as after the barrel rolls the keg,
za boyarynei katit bochonochek,
behind the great boyarynia tumbles
the little boyar.
Ledenets zubyonki vyecelo gryzut.
Teeth happily gnaw at candies.
Nynche prazdnik!
It’s a holiday!
Sten’ku Razina vezut!
They’re bringing Stenka Razin!
Pryot kupyets, treshcha s gorokha.
The merchant plods along, bursting with
peas.
Mchatsa vskach’dva skomorokha.
He hurries past two buffoons.
Semenit yaryzhka-plut...
A jester minces by ...
Sten’ku Razina vezut!
They’re bringing Stenka Razin!
V stup’yakh vsye, yedva zhivyye,
With faltering steps, barely alive,
startsy s verviyem na vyye,
old men with kerchiefs round their necks,
shto-to sham kaya, polzut ...
mumbling something, crawl by ...
WOMEN’S CHORUS
I sramnyye dyevki tozhe,
And shameless wenches too,
pod khmel’kom vskochiv s rogozhi,
hurried from bed still tipsy,
ogurtsom namazav rozhi,
their ugly faces rubbed with cucumber,
shparyat rys’yu — v lyazhkakh zud ...
hurry by at a trot — with itchy thighs ...
FULL CHORUS
Sten’ku Razina vezut! ...
They’re bringing Stenka Razin! ...
I pod vizg stryelyetskikh z
To the screams of the archers’ wives,
pod plyevki so vcyekh storon
spat upon from all sides,
