Sarah Moulton Faux & Konstantin Soukhovetski: YULIYA: Forgotten Songs of Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov
Azica Records

In a reclamation project that bears similarities to that of African-American composer Florence Price, soprano Sarah Moulton Faux, pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski, and producer Judith Sherman present fifteen art songs by Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov (1878–1942), Nikolai's daughter-in-law. The project began during the pandemic when Moulton Faux was undertaking archival research and uncovered Weissberg's forgotten scores in Moscow's Russian State Library. While the composer's name might be known to scholars such as Susan M. Filler, whose Alma Mahler and Her Contemporaries: A Research and Information Guide (2018) includes eighty-nine annotated Weissberg entries, she's a figure largely unknown to the general public. Through the efforts of Moulton Faux and her collaborators, listeners now have the opportunity to discover that there are not one but two Rimsky-Korsakovs worthy of attention.

Recorded during May 2023 at Drew University's Dorothy Young Center for the Arts, YULIYA makes a compelling case for Weissberg, and certainly the composer's strikingly evocative material is well-served by Moulton Faux, whose luminous voice brings these oft-poignant songs to vivid life. Throughout the set, Soukhovetski sensitively supports her interpretations as the two amplify the composer's harmonic language and emotional terrain. Moulton Faux's commitment extends beyond musical presentation to include the writing of detailed liner notes, with contributions from Dr. Kirsten Santos Rutschman. While the text's extensive biographical and historical details facilitate a full appreciation of the project, a brief synopsis helps to provide context.

Moulton Faux first encountered the name of the thrice-married Weissberg (the last to a Rimsky-Korsakov) by accident when she happened upon the name while practicing and researching the songs of Nikolai Rimsky-Korskakov and the source referenced “his daughter-in-law, composer Julia Weissberg.” Born into a Jewish family in 1878, she entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at about seventeen, beginning as a vocal student before transitioning to study composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and instrumentation with Alexander Glazunov. Years later and living in Berlin, she studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and Max Reger at the Akademie der Künste and composed large-scale symphonic pieces. Yet while her first (and only) symphony was well-received at its 1912 premiere in Berlin, Weissberg experienced the same kind of gender discrimination and artistic misogyny that female composers before her endured. Returning to St. Petersburg and re-establishing herself as a noteworthy musical figure, she married the musicologist A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov in 1913, five years after the death of his composer father. At times, domestic life consumed her attention and energy so completely, she didn't compose at all, but when she resumed writing in 1920, her work was performed widely in concert and via radio broadcasts. She had, by this stage, shifted her focus to vocal music, specifically art songs, songs for children and youth, and operas for children, and these too were enthusiastically received. In 1942, suffering mentally and physically when Nazi forces held Leningrad under siege, she died, days after the death of her younger son and two years after her husband. Wartime upheaval and anti-semitism saw this pioneering female composer gradually fade into obscurity.

A century after their creation, her songs hold up splendidly, as these exemplary renditions by Moulton Faux and Soukhovetski show, and it doesn't hurt that they're presented with pristine clarity by Sherman. Single pieces appear alongside song cycles, Three Romances first and Rautendelein, Deux Chansons, and From Chinese Poetry following. English translations by the soprano and pianist of texts by Lermontov, Hauptmann, Verlaine, and others are included in the booklet and enhance appreciation for Weissberg's accomplishments (though the texts in their original languages would have been welcome).

The control, nuance, and articulation the soprano brings to the rhapsodic opener “Song” from Three Romances, Op. 1 bodes well for what follows. Segueing seamlessly between reserve and ecstasy, the song traverses a broad emotional landscape in but four minutes. The second song in the cycle, “Alone, I Start My Journey,” is fittingly tender and melancholy, though agitation finds its way into the performance. Moments of playfulness enter into the presentation too, as demonstrated by “I Don't Know Where I Came From” (its expansive sweep calling to mind Richard Strauss), and “Where? I Sat at the Feast,” both from the resonant cycle Rautendelein, Op. 3. From Deux Chansons, Op. 2, “The Sky Above” exudes the poetic elegance of French chanson, while “Autumn's Song” is melancholy incarnate (“I set off on the rough wind that carries me here and there / Like a leaf which has died”). Set to verse by the Indian poet Sarojini Naidu, “Spring's Song” beguiles in part for being the rare song delivered in English. YULIYA concludes with From Chinese Poetry, Op. 7, with three of the four songs set to texts by Li Bai (1140-1210). In the mournful “Scarlet Rose,” a woman pines desperately for her lover who's away at war, while in the shimmering “Moonlit Stairs” a melancholy empress gazes upon the autumnal moon. The musicians prove to be equally effective whether they're delivering lyrical reveries, entrancing fairy tales, or aching laments.

While Moulton Faux is the major driving force behind the project, words by Soukhovetski provide a fitting concluding commentary on its significance. “Bringing these songs back into the world feels like a restoration of justice," he says. “Each song we perform feels urgent and relevant, bridging the past and the present.” No more than a single listen is needed to be convinced of the accuracy of his statements.

September 2025