SOLOMON KROMCHENKO, CD recitals
Russian disc RDCD OO851 (2009 release)
Russian disc  RDCD 00850 (2009 release)
Russian disc  a-ram OCD 020 (1997 release)

Khromchenko1 Khromchenko2

As far as I know these are the first CD releases of Khromchenko (1907- 2002) in the Russian federation. About a decade ago a Russian-Israeli (?) label issued some Jewish folksongs on CD recorded at an age when the tenor was 80 yet the singing still retained a great deal of its former splendour. This Cd contains tracks from Melodya which issued several lp releases including amongst others a Jewish song recital (1987), a Neapolitan song recital (1980) and a double LP with his operatic 78 rpm recordings and more song repertoire (1977).  The first Russian disc CD contains songs by Glinka, Cui, Bulakhov, Rubinstein, Balakirev, Rachmaninov and other Russian song composers. The second CD luckily contains  all his existing recorded arias/extracts from Aleko, Rusland and Ludmilla, Rafael, Faust and La jolie fille de Perth but the majority of the tracks are Russian, Ukranian, Spanish and Italian songs with Mendelsohn’s Fluegeln des Gesanges squeezed in. The earliest recordings go back to 1933 –a year after he graduated from the Kiev conservatory- and the latest were recorded in 1952, thus Khromchenko in his prime. The booklets are in English too and contain a few photographs. When Galina Vishnevskaya in her ‘daring’ memoirs talks about Cromchenko he not only gets praise as a highly gifted vocalist but he’s also lauded for his humanity.
Nevertheless he always lived under the shadow of his more or less contemporaries Lemeshev and Kozlovsly yet he had a lot in common with them. Khromchenko too has an instantly recognizable timbre, an excellent technique and unfailing musicianship. His is a fine tenor of beautiful quality and his smooth and polished legato singing will provide much pleasure to those who want to purchase the Cd’s. they are medium priced and available through ebay or directly with www.russiandisc.ru
In December 2004 The Record Collector carried his detailed biography and an almost complete discography.
RvdB