Boris Shtokolov- Pis’mo k materi (Letter to Mother) (Esenin)

Boris Timofeevich Shtokolov (1930-2005) is a name unfamiliar to most music aficionados in the West. Although he was was an extremely popular singer in the former Soviet Union (and my personal favorite bass), his exposure to audiences beyond the Iron Curtain was limited- his tours abroad were not frequent, and recordings are relatively sparse for an artist of his stature. A graduate of the Ural State Conservatory in Ekaterinburg, he was THE leading bass at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg for much of