Despite their depth of feeling and beauty of sound, Tchaikovsky's one hundred or so songs have struggled to hold their own in the concert repertoire. The stumbling block is perhaps linguistic, and not musical,since all of Tchaikovsky's songs are accessible and immediately captivating. Although they rarely plumb the depths of Schubert's masterpieces, their melodic charm and contrapuntal adroitness are always evident. What they occasionally lack in choice of poetry or subtlety of nuance, they make up for in dramatic quality and heart-rending emotion - not surprising, as Tchaikovsky was such a successful operatic composer.

In 1992 Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin and I gave a performance of the songs recorded on this CD in Dublin and were greatly surprised and graified by the enthuasiastic response with which they were received. This recording will hopefully contribute to making them more popular in recital programmes, in particular for non Russian-speaking audiences.

The songs you will hear on this CD were recorded