Ljuba Kazarnovskaya: The complete "Songs for children Op. 54" (Tchaikovsky)

Songs for children (Op. 54):
I. Babushka i vnuchek 00:00
II. Pitchka 02:25
III. Vesna: Travka zeleneyet 04:58
IV. Moy sadik 07:11
V. Legenda 09:41
VI. Na beregu 13:03
VII. Zimniy vecher 16:27
VIII. Kukushka 21:06
IX. Vesba: Uzh tayet sneg 23:52
X. Kolybel'naya pesn' v buruy 26:15
XI. Tsvetok 29:28
XII. Zima 32:56
XIII. Vesennaya pesnya 35:18
XIV. Osen' 38:20
XV. Lastochka 43:03
XVI. Detskaya pesenka 45:51

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840-93) composer
Ljuba Kazarnovskaya -soprano
Ljuba Orfenova -piano

Playlist: The art of Russian song: Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky...: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdM8VSWYvcWEFAIPSACJP3UM0xNDdnl-R

Score: http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2/2f/IMSLP90943-PMLP45014-Tchaikovsky--Songs-Op54--Ed-Muzyka.pdf

Tchaikovsky first had the idea of composing a collection of children's songs in 1881. On 7/19 March that year he asked Pyotr Jurgenson to send him Karl Albrecht's Child's Songs and "any other sort of children's songs". Then on 4/16 June he reported his intention to write a collection of children's songs.
Even before this, apparently in December 1880 or January 1881, Tchaikovsky had composed Child's Song ("My Lizochek"), which was then published by Pyotr Jurgenson.
The remaining songs used in the collection (Nos. 1 to 15) were written in the autumn of 1883 at Kamenka, shortly after the Suite No. 2 had been completed.
After completing the Suite No. 2 on 13/25 October, Tchaikovsky spent five days in Kiev before returning to Kamenka on 19/31 October. From here he wrote to Nikolay Konradi: "Now I shall rest for a while, i.e. writing nothing, or next to nothing". On the fair copy of the song Spring (No. 3). Tchaikovsky wrote the date " Kamenka, 23 Oct[ober] 1883". On 24 October/5 November, the composer told Modest Tchaikovsky: "It is obvious that I cannot live without work here even for a few days, and scarcely had I finished my suite than I set about composing children's songs. carefully writing one each day. But this work is agreeable and easy because I've taken the texts from Pleshcheyev's Snowdrop, which is full of delightful things".
The composer worked on the songs with great enthusiasm: "I am now writing a collection of children's songs, which I have been planning for some time"—he wrote to Nadezhda von Meck on 25 October/6 November 1883. "I am quite carried away with this work, and I think the songs will turn out well".
On 30 October/11 November. Tchaikovsky told Praskovya Tchaikovskayathat composition of the songs had come to a halt: "I would have written more of them because I find this work very agreeable, but I have run out of suitable poems". He also wrote to Modest Tchaikovsky on 31 October/12 November: "I have been writing some children's songs, but have had to stop due to a shortage of texts".
It seems that at this point the rough draft was more or less complete, and work had begun on copying out the songs, as Tchaikovsky wrote to Nadezhda von Meck on 1/13 November: "I am occupied with writing children's songs. This should have been completed during my holiday, had I not been carried away and made so many sketches, which I now yearn to be over and done with".

Source: http://wiki.tchaikovsky-research.net/wiki/Sixteen_Songs_for_Children,_Op._54

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