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From Russia With Love
Helmut Lotti

A deep dark Cossack song echoes over endless mighty steppes. Impressive Saint-Petersburg and dazzling Moscow. The land of vodka and Volga. In "From Russia With Love", Helmut Lotti encounters a new world. A vast empire he describes in touching words and captivating harmonies. "From Russia With Love" is his personal postcard from the land of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky. So it's not - as one of the local choir members wonders during the recordings, prickled by chords in minor and balalaika ­ an unknown Russian traditional song. Nor is it the title music to a Bond movie with Sean Connery.
"From Russia With Love" is the portrait of a world nation, painted with admiration by a world star.

Helmut: "The task was to describe the glory of Russia in a musical story. Through music that returns to the soul of an empire, passing on that typical Russian feeling. I first breathed the scent but most of all the atmosphere of this incomparable country during a working visit to Moscow in February of this year. Afterwards, stimulated by more trips, I started writing. Sentences and notes, all coming from within the depth of my soul. Filled with a burning desire to share my feelings for this immense nation with the rest of the world. This song is essential. Ever since the expansion of Europe, Russia has become our close neighbour. And not just any neighbour. While wandering through it, you can see that Russia is blossoming these days, rightly proud of its inheritance as well as its future."

Lara's Theme
Francis Paul Webster & Maurice Jarre

Title music written by a Frenchman, for an American movie with an Egyptian in the leading part, based on a novel published in Italy, written by a Russian, who won a Swedish award. Ever since 1965, "Dr. Zhivago" by director David Lean has been a real classic. The movie and accompanying music expose the beating heart of the Slavic world. The story? Pure, tormented passion inflames when the married doctor Yuri Zhivago falls in love with Lara, the wife of a political activist. Written by Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), who paints this love story against the turbulent political background of the Bolshevist revolution. This explains why no Russian publisher originally dared to touch his novel. Interesting fact: Pasternak used his own extramarital love for Olga Ivinskaya as a model. His novel was published only in 1957 thanks to an Italian publisher.
"Dr. Zhivago" gained world literature-status when Pasternak was rewarded with the Nobel Price a year later. However, the Soviet regime forced him not to accept the Nobel Price. But a new chance presented itself in 1965, when a movie version with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the leading parts was produced and this production received a lot of awards. No less than 5 Oscars were won, amongst them one for the soundtrack by Maurice Jarre, father of Jean-Michel and one of the exceptional composers with his own star ­ number 2001 ­ on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Helmut: "By changing the sentence "Somewhere My Love" into "Lara My Love", I've tried to mould this song even more to the original story of "Dr. Zhivago". This beautiful melody was perfect for  the creation of our charming filmic arrangement."

A man realizes how short life is, how fast time flies by. When he hears the evening bells, he automatically thinks back of the spring of his life. Every sound of the heavy bells reminds him of his youth, the home he grew up in and of so many supposedly forgotten memories. At the same time, he realizes that the bells now announce him the end of his life.

Helmut: "For this song I've written an English verse, in which I sing about  the nostalgia that's present in everyone and that accompanies saying farewell and getting older. I wrote this verse from within my heart, without any pain or sadness. Because nostalgia enriches life."

Originally, this Russian folksong, "Odnozvutschno gremit kolokoltschik", tells the story of a man who's riding along in a troika through the endless Russian plains one night. On the monotonous rhythm of the little horse-bells, the coachman sings a dispirited song. By the sadness reflected in this song, the man remembers his youth, the region he grew up in, other nights in which he was happy. This song is full of melancholy, so typical for the Russian music. The melody inspired Helmut Lotti to write "Far East Of The Sun". With a great sense of respect for the individual, he tells the story of people in exile. And he keeps the feeling of melancholy brilliantly intact.

Helmut: "The ease with which people ­ often artists and intellectuals ­ were banned to inhospitable places in times gone by, leaves scars on the Russian soul. Nevertheless, most of the outcasts remain loyal to their ideals. For example Sergey Volkonsky (1788-1865), who was deported to Siberia during the suppressed revolution of the decabrists (1826), but returns full of pride from exile 30 years later. His stubbornness becomes the source of inspiration on which Tolstoy bases the character of  Nikolay Bolkonsky in his masterpiece "War and Peace". It's also my guide in writing the lyrics for "Far East Of The Sun". In this text, I sing about how you can capture people, but not their minds. And that someone¹s past easily becomes mythical when he's cut off from his roots. Therefore my phrase "absence made my heart grow fonder"."

Like the evolution of the Russian choir in "Ej Ukhnem", you picture the foresters pulling their tree-trunks with joined forces and biceps like steel. One, two, three, yès! Or the barge haulers on the tow-path next to the river dragging their boat. One, two, three, yès ! Sweat on their foreheads, bare-chested and every muscle strained. One, two, three, yès! Only a true artist would be able to paint their portrait. Around 1870, Ilya Repin portrays them in full labour with complete knowledge of their suffering. In that same year Alexander Borodin transforms this old folksong into a captivating piano duet.

Helmut: "When I hear this bombastic, filmic arrangement, combined with the massive vocal performance, I immediately picture the hard work of a large group of people. Their labouring and sweating. Their unity and determination. And those Russian choirs pure goose bumps! The intensity they put in Slavic melodies like these, is as strong and impressive as that of a dozen Mario Lanzas."

Helmut still gets a warm feeling from "Kalinka". This song is one of the first "classics" he ever recorded, as you can experience on "The Red Album". And thus one of the first traditional songs with which he started his fairytale international successes. Today, "Kalinka" is not so much the classical sing-along anymore. Helmut takes the song back to its roots, sings it like the authentic traditional song from the country he embraced in his heart. He surpasses himself as more than the singer of classical songs. More than anything he¹s the interpreter of recognizable emotions, performed in a unique way.

Helmut: "The search for the origin of a song helps me to make my feelings for that song more intense and personal. In my opinion it's the violins that make "Kalinka" sound more folkloristic. That's the way I intended it to be. Because "Kalinka" is actually a simple song about an eternal and universal theme: love. The singer compares the girl he¹s in love with to a little juniper. Because she makes him lose his head. Cheerfully and enticing he sings his song. Full of hope that she will open her heart to him."

Helmut strikes a sensitive cord. Literally. Two guitars break into a lamentation, a distant call for happier times. The man, hearing this suggestion of emotions, this outburst of tears, this song full of life, nests himself comfortably in the sadness that can be heard. It¹s the theme of "Les deux guitares" by Charles Aznavour, now interpreted by Helmut Lotti. Majestically he guides the listener, directed by the crying instruments. Let yourself be absorbed and swept away to the unknown heights of emotional depths.

Helmut: "Sadness can be beautiful. Hold still for a while and cry, it's all so simple. Or so it seems, because of course it's not. But I have the feeling that songs like this come from within me. The feeling that it's right. That this song is a part of me and I'm a part of the song. Because sadness is a part of life. Every tear makes us more human."

Plundering, 12 robbers go from village to village. Urged by their leader Kudijar, they not only steal money and jewellery but also the most beautiful women. Until one morning Kudijar wakes up next to a recently captured young girl and sees the amulet she's wearing around her neck. He realizes he spent the night with his very own daughter from a passionate love of times long past. Kudijar is shocked and leaves his criminal past behind him. He retreats in a monastery and from that day on leads a life full of penance. The dramatic and melancholic character of this story, first registered by the poet Nikolay Nekrasov, is a very typical example of traditional Russian story telling. The performance of the choir - accompanying Kudijar's history - evokes the image of the rough robber who sings out his grief over the plain.

Helmut:"During the recordings of "From Russia With Love", the members of the Russian choir and myself were chatting while having a meal. Together, we dreamed away over Russian music. And suddenly there's the Moment with a capital M. Spontaneously, someone starts to sing "The Legend Of The 12 Robbers". An a cappella song is born, never to be forgotten. In Russia, this song and this legend are known to everybody in their own version. I proudly add mine."

On the notes of "Melody in F" by Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), Helmut Lotti writes catching lyrics about a heartbreaking because forbidden love : "Embrace me once more, please understand we don¹t have a future together, let me return to where I belong." Classic composer Rubinstein probably knows the feeling. Born and raised in Russia, he meets Chopin and Liszt in Paris, is in favour of the Berlin School, and in 1862 he founds the conservatory of Saint-Petersburg. His brother Nikolay does the same in Moscow. Especially Anton gets to deal with the resistance of the 'real Russians' like Borodin and Tchaikovsky, because of too many Austrian-German influences. Nevertheless, Rubinstein and this charming "Melody in F" earn a place in the Russian musical history.

Helmut: "Russian music really contains  àll aspects. There's the age-old folk music but also the western-inspired classical pieces like this composition by Anton Rubinstein. It shows what Russian masters were capable of and what Russian music can add to our own classical European repertoire."

Balalaikas are like little twigs in woods full of violins. Drops of crystal enclosing the big cascade. It may come as a surprise to many that this is an original Russian song. Because who didn't rock along on "Those Were The Days"? Even Paul McCartney knows the song like this. Gene Raskin translated it in 1963 and scored a first little hit. But in 1968  the Beatle-in-charge passes this same English version on to singer Mary Hopkin who makes it into a huge success, using the young Apple-record label of the Fab-Four.

Helmut: "This is, according to Russian tradition, a troika-song that one sings along during long sleigh rides and polar nights. It's about a man who reflects on a lost love. He thinks about the sad loss and yearns for a new future. It's exactly that crossroad, that duality, that fascinates me immensely."

Unlike Pjotr Tchaikovsky, who's from the same generation, Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) isn't very popular with the court. Tsar Alexander III thinks his compositions are too Russian. Easily explained as Borodin, just like Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, belongs to the Russian School. Nevertheless, this talented musician interprets 'his' Russia in his very own way. Gaining inspiration from oriental influences, he portrays it as an empire in search of itself. For example in the opera "Prince Igor" ­ and more specific in the Polovtsian dances ­ Borodin bases his work on Tschuwaschian, Bashkirian, Hungarian, Algerian, Tunisian, and Arabian melodies. This song, featuring in the second act of the opera, is finished only after Borodin's death, by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov in 1888. The song shows up in the Broadway musical "Kismet" with the title "Stranger in Paradise" in 1953. After that it starts a hit-life in the hands of, among others, Tony Bennett (1954),  Bing Crosby (1955) and José Carreras (1996), the latter singing it under the title "My Own Little Miracle".

Helmut: "In "Prince Igor" the female slaves of this Polovtsian dance hope for a better life and for an escape to their fatherland. Where it's always warm and the roses always bloom. This theme I've kept in my English version. "Dream Away" is the story of people who are where they would rather not be, who dream of a world that has become unreachable. In that context, my last verse ­ "dream away, for your dream is your destiny" ­ is very ambiguous, a beautiful and hopeful open ending."

Gritsu goes to a party, despite the fact that he was advised not to because of too many temptations. He had better listened to the advise. Because of course he falls in love with the most beautiful girl of the dance. Until reality hits the next day and he looks at her through completely different eyes. He regrets his thoughtlessness and wonders how and when he can break up with her.

Helmut: "This song comes from the Ukraine, which politically doesn't belong to the Russian federation anymore. But the Ukraine once was an important part of the historical Russian empire. And this sounds through in the music. It so happens that "Lutshje Bulo" unmistakably reflects that Russian soul."

This song, also known as "Midnight in Moscow" or "Podmoskovniye Vetchera", paints an enchanting, unforgettable night. The only night a couple in love can offer one another, bathing in romance and anticipating nostalgia. They're totally absorbed by each other and already cherish this intimate moment together.

Helmut: "A song that lends itself to the klezmer and the gipsy approach, but that's also perfectly fit for a symphonic arrangement. In short, I could do anything with it. I opted for a slightly folkloristic but symphonic adaptation. For pure romance and a fragile atmosphere, echoed through violins and acoustic guitar. Like unique nights can be romantic and fragile."

For the girls, the goodbyes are heartbreaking when their loved ones have to leave for the army. Because the army, no matter how well armed, always has to deal with an enemy that shows no mercy. Helmut Lotti treads on dangerous grounds with "Poljushko Polje", bearing in mind the recent history of Russia. The song originated in the thirties of the last century. A soldiers song, a song of the Red Army, that developed a bitter historical taste since World War II and the thereupon following Cold War.
But because the folkloristic tradition of the Cossacks is omnipresent in Russian musical history, Helmut does get the chance to belt out from the bottom of his heart.

Helmut: "War, unfortunately, is of all times and all nations, so history tells us. No matter how foolish and useless. I often wonder why people can't just live together in peace and harmony."

"Otschi Tschornije" tells the story of how that girl with the black flashing eyes makes a man lose his head with one glance. Of how that man adores her in the beginning, and curses her at the end. There are endless varieties on this theme. Half a century ago, band leader Tom Dorsey created one without words and called his instrumental version "Dark Eyes". It's a certainty that all records with an overview of the classical Russian repertoire have this song in their final selection. Helmut Lotti had a choice: would he unquestioningly copy "Otschi Tschornije" from "Helmut Lotti goes Classic II", or would he delve deeper to the inspiring origin of this very old story? Without a doubt, he opted for the latter.

Helmut: "Mysterious eyes like dark precious stones, that has to be a dangerous woman. It seems obvious that this is a gipsy song, soaked with nomad blood. But that's not the case. "Otschi Tschornije" is a mere Russian love song. But with such a lyrical and dramatic depth, that a performer can do nothing but lick his lips."

Performed for the first time on January 1st 1944, the official anthem of the Soviet Union was created at the explicit and personal request of Joseph Stalin. At that time ­ 1942 - Alexander Alexandrov is the convincing leader of the Red Army Orchestra. He writes a hymn that survives the fall of the empire. Although president Yeltsin wants to reintroduce a tsarist hymn, the current president Vladimir Putin declares the Soviet canon once again as National Anthem, be it with a few post-Soviet adaptations of the lyrics.

Helmut: "As a child, I used to watch the medal ceremony on the Olympic Games with amazement. It sometimes seemed like Russia won everything. Therefore I often heard their anthem. And the more I heard it, the more medals they should have won in my opinion. Because their national hymn always gave me goose bumps and every time I heard it, I turned the television up. Being allowed to sing this hymn myself is an immense, almost indescribable honour for me."