Caccini - Ave Maria - Irina Arkhipova

Great Russian mezzo - passed away on Feb.11, 2010. RIP!

I had the privilege to hear that very piece live, being at her concert in then Leningrad in the early 80-s, and still remember vividly packed to full capacity the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic and tears on the faces of hundreds and hundreds of people (my face included), when the last note vanished in the air...

Shortly after I even wrote a small poem about that unforgettable experience (in my native Russian, of course).

Here it is:

ВОСПОМИНАНИЕ О КОНЦЕРТЕ И.К.АРХИПОВОЙ В БЗЛФ
Ave Maria, зал белостенный -
Юноши, девы, старцы почтенны...

Ave Maria, Шуберт и Верди -
Песня о жизни, песня о смерти.

Ave Maria, голос Органа,
Сердцу и сладко, и больно, и странно...

Ave Maria, голос Певицы,
Мука и нежность, слёзы на лицах.

Ave Maria, Бах и Каччини -
Боль без болезни, грусть без причины.

Ave Maria, слёзы на лицах...
Кажется, я научился молиться.

1982

PS: Many years later after that memorable concert I posted this poem on the website of another great Soviet singer - Muslim Magometovich Magomaev (MMM), knowing that he and his wife, opera singer Tamara Sinyavskaya, were friends with Irina Konstantinovna (IKA) and her husband Vladislav Pyavko. (Arkhipova, Sinyavskaya and Pyavko were all soloists of Bolshoy Theater in the 1960s-80s and were partners in many productions there). You can imagine how humbled, honored and delighted I was when MMM let me know afterwards that he personally(!) had read the poem over the phone to IKA (who at the time was already in poor health) and that she had asked him to convey to me how genuinely touched she was by such an appreciation from a listener and how grateful she was for it...

Видео Caccini - Ave Maria - Irina Arkhipova канала Uncle Sam