Greek Songs. Adaptations

Greek Songs

For Voice and Piano

The adaptations of Greek songs stand alongside such compositions by Shostakovich as Ten Russian Folk Songs for mixed choir and piano, Two Russian Folk Songs for unaccompanied choir, Seven Adaptations of Finnish Folk Songs, Eight British and American Folk Songs, instrumentations and adaptations of Russian folk songs ‘Cudgel’ and ‘Hey, Let’s Bang’, and the Scottish ballad ‘Annie Laurie’, Spanish Songs, and so on.

There is an inscription on the first page of the author’s manuscript written by Shostakovich: ‘Adaptation of Greek Songs. 1952-1953.’

One of the four adaptations, ‘Forward!’ was first published in the music appendix of the May issue of the journal Sovetskaya muzyka of 1954.

There is no information about any performances of the adaptations during Shostakovich’s life time.

All four adaptations were first recorded on a CD by the DELOS Company (DE 3304) in 2002 performed by Mikhail Lukonin (baritone) and Yuri Serov (piano).