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

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

composed by

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

(191376) in August 1965 during a holiday visit with

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 ...

Dilijan Dilijan () is a spa town and urban municipal community in the Dilijan Municipality of 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 t ...

, Armenia, during the “Days of Benjamin Britten” hosted by

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

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

Alexandr Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

(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 (, Ivanova, Иванова; 25 October 1926 – 11 December 2012) was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966. She was the wife of cellist Mstislav Rostropo ...

("Galya") (soprano) and her husband

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

("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 choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten, composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The ''War Requiem'' was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, in the Englis ...

'', 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 Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

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

and Britten tried out the songs at the

Pushkin House The Pushkin House (), 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 Sciences. History Establishment The Russian Lite ...

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

ritten Ritten (; ) 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 the southe ...

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