Kalistrat (Калистрат) - Isser Bushkin (bass) - Мussorgsky

Kalistrat performed by bass singer Isser Bushkin from an unknown recording. "Калистрат" в исполнении баса, оперного певца Иссера Бушкина (запись неизвестна). ---- Isser Bushkin (Иссер Бушкин) was born on May 4th, 1928 in Riga, Latvia. His childhood was spent learning music from his grandfather, Yudel (“Yehuda”) Pisetzky, who played second violin in Richard Strauss’ orchestra. Once World War II began, Isser and his mother, along with his younger brother, fled to Cheboksary (Chuvashia Republic) in the USSR, where they would spend the remainder of the war. Isser worked at a military factory during the war, and though only a teenager, was the sole breadwinner for his family. His older brother Shmuel and father Nisen were captured in Riga’s ghetto by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp, but managed to survive, though Isser lost most of his extended family, who all perished during Latvia’s occupation in the war. After the war, Isser left Cheboksary and began his studies at the Conservatory of Riga, becoming an operatic bass. For the next forty years, he would travel, perform, and record with numerous artists, including composers Dmitri Shostakovitch and Leonard Bernstein, conductors Herbert von Karajan and James Levine, opera singers Richard Tucker, Placido Domingo, Robert Merrill, Umberto Giordano, Sherrill Milnes, Teresa Kubiak, Renata Scotto, and others. In 1964, Isser won second place at the Soviet Union Vocalists Contests in the name of M. P. Mussorgsky held...