MARIANA SADOVSKA:
SONGS I LEARNED IN UKRAINE
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With its disarming title, Songs I Learned in Ukraine is as unpretentious a recording as one is likely to find.
An extraordinary vocalist, Mariana Sadovska offers 18 songs of the Ukraine.
"I do not sing songs I found in books.
Each song I sing was given to me by a specific woman I met," she says.
Along with her harmonium accompaniment, Sadovska gleans folk songs on expeditions to the villages of Poltava and Polissia and the regions of Hutsul and Lemko.
On "Cycle of Wedding Songs" and "Cycle of Wedding Songs from Polissia," rituals and incantations sung by the bridesmaids are represented.
"Three Lullabies" and songs of love ("Ivan-lvan"), loss ("Vdova"), and the land ("Cycle of Spring Calling Songs from Polissia") are richly portrayed and beautifully sung.
(Richard Dorsett)