Fabula Verlag Literature to listen to
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Our Series: Documents of our times

Authors Read From Their Own Works

Does a word live through its sound? Is reading interpretation? How do writers intonate their own texts?

These questions are for you to answer, we try to find texts for a recording that do not have to be abridged. We do not want to encourage the trend to cut down stories to an easily presentable action plot -- the full flavour depends on subtle ingredients.

The CD and a booklet with the complete text in Russian are presented in a beautifully decorated hardcover box. All in Russian.

• Cingis Ajtmatov: The Lament of the Migratory Bird

  This early short story by Aitmatov gives an insight into the Kirgisean culture. Linking a mythological subject with a dreadfully realistic action plot, the author succeeds in constructing a bridge that transports the reader to the most challenging questions and pending problems of our time.

  Read by the author

  ISBN: 3-929298-08-2

• Alexander Kostinskij: The Land of Happiness

  "Jewish Short Stories"

  These three fairy tales by Alexander Kostinskij are not only to be considered valuable entertainment for children, their profound humour makes them attractive to all readers.

  Read by the author

  ISBN: 3-929298-09-0

• Valeria Narbikova: Time to destination

  We find 6 different essays in this collection.

  Read by the author

  ISBN: 3-929298-18-X

• Bulat Okudzava: How Iwan Iwanitsch made a whole country happy In Russia not available

  At the time of perestroika an insignificant worker (who in his spare time builds wooden frames), is to be invited by the powerful boss of a Japanese company to visit him...

  Read by the author

  ISBN: 3-929298-11-2

The Handy Set: cassette and text

In this series we offer masterpieces of the Russian literature (again unabridged) on audio cassette with the complete text. The readers are Russians and the booklets are held in the size of the cassette so it's handy to take them along.

• Ivan Bunin: The gentleman from San Francisco

  Read by A. Kostinski

  ISBN: 3-929298-14-7

• Cechov: Four Short Stories

  (Zabyl, Bez mesta, Zakaz, Obshchee obrazovanie)

  Read by K. Kasatkin

  ISBN: 3-929298-01-5

• Zoscenko: Six short stories

  (Bednaya Liza, Melkij sluchaj iz lichnoj zhizni (1), Stradaniya molodogo Vertera, Melkij sluchaij iz lichnoj zhizni (2), Rasskaz o bespokojnom starike, Interesnaya krazha v kooperative)

  Read by K. Kasatkin

  ISBN: 3-929298-03-1

• Puskin : The Queen of Spades

  Read by M. Schumann/K. Kasatkin

  ISBN: 3-929298-05-8

• Tolstoj: Fables and short stories

  (Dva kuptsa, Dva tovarishcha, Vizir Abdul, Pravednyj sud'ya, Kak muzhik gusej delil, Pryzhok...)

  Read by M. Thorgevsky

  ISBN: 3-929298-06-6

• Turgenev: Poetry in prose

  Read by M. Thorgevsky

  ISBN: 3-929298-10-4

Cassettes without text

• Chukovskij: 1.Fairy tales and poems

  Read by the author

• Chukovskij: 2.Fairy tales and poems

  Read by the author

• Berggolts: Poems

  Read by O. Shirokova

Classical masterpieces on CD with text

• A. S. Puskin : E. Onegin

  Extracts with comments

  Read by Ya. Smolenskij

  ISBN: 3-929298-12-0

• Akhmatova: Northern Elegy and other poems

  Read by A. Demidova

  ISBN: 3-929298-13-9

• Tsvetaeva: Poems

  Read by A. Demidova

  ISBN: 3-929298-17-1

• Pasternak: Poems

  Read by Ya. Smolenskij

  ISBN: 3-929298-15-5

• Mandelshtam: Poems

  Read by R. Klejner

  ISBN: 3-929298-16-3

Classical masterpieces on CD without text

• N. V. Gogol: The Overcoat

• Dostoevskij: Bobok

  Read by K. Kasatkin

  ISBN: 3-929298-04-X

• Russian poetry from the 1800s to the Modern Age

  Read by M. Thorgevsky

  ISBN: 3-929298-07-4

• Fairy Tales by different authors

  (Garshin, Gor'kij, Garin-Mikhajlovskij, Bianki und Tolstoj)

  Read by K. Kasatkin

  ISBN: 3-929298-02-3

  Read by Alexander Kostinskij

  ISBN: 3-929298-19-8

DVD Video

• Dziga Vertov: Man With a Movie Camera

  Man With a Movie Camera is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking, a montage of urban Russian life showing the people of the city at work and at play, and the machines that keep the city going. It was Vertov's first full-length film, and he used all the cinematic techniques at his disposal -- dissolves, split screen, slow motion and freeze-frames -- to produce a work that is exhilarating and intellectually brilliant.

  This special edition DVD features a choice of 3 soundtracks to accompany the film:

  A soundtrack composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra, who have closely followed Vertov's notes on music to accompany the film.

  A new score from In the Nursery, who successfully toured the UK with the film last year. Their score deploys the latest music technology to create a soundtrack that reflects Vertov's own progessive filmmaking techniques.

  A commentary by Yuri Tsivian (in English), the leading historian of Russian silent cinema. His provocative and stimulating account makes this masterpiece of documentary cinema accessible as never before.

Video cassettes

Original sound track with English subtitles.

• Nikita Mikhalkov: An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano

  The film is based on Chekhov's first drama ``Platonov''. It depicts the quintessence of Chekhov's tragicomical description of society as well as the subtle mastery of an outstanding film maker, whose lyrical refinement culminates in his last film ``Urga''.

• Andrey Tarkovsky: Stalker

  Tarkovsky is perhaps the most ``revolutionary'' of Russian film makers. Born 1932 near the Volga river, he left the Soviet Union in 1984, shortly before his death.

  Years had to pass before most of his films were allowed to been shown in public.

  This film, based on a short story by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, describes in a modern way the quest for the Holy Grail.

• Andrey Tarkovsky: Solaris

  The plot for this film is taken from a science fiction novel written by the Polish author Stanislaw Lem.

  It deals with the difficulties of communication and communicability. Being a philosophical discourse and a search at the same time the film opperates with a moral impact that does not entertain, but proves to be challenging.

• Larisa Shepitko: The Ascent

  Based on a story by Vassil Bykov.

  Larissa Shepitko belongs to a generation of film makers, where the impediments of a censorship are not so strict. She was born in 1939 in Kiev and died at an early age in a traffic accident. Her husband, a film maker too accomplished her last film ``Farewell Matyora''.

  The film demonstrates critical handling of the illustration of the Second World War. Two imprisoned partisans have to deceide between collaboration and punishment.

  The film received a price during the Berlin film festival in 1977.

• Sergo Paradjanov: The Colour of the Pomegranates Legend of the Suram Fortress

  Sergo Paradjanov was born in 1924 in Georgia of Armenian parents. Like Tarkovsky, he was time and again hindered by the regime and more than once arrested.

  The Colour of the Pomegranates

  With the illustrated biography of a famous national poet, we gain insights into the colourful and ornate Armenian music, painting and literature.

  Legend of the Suram Fortress

  The second film, taken in Georgia, combines tradition with modern views and reflects medieval scenes in the highly aesthetic mirror of cineastic avantgarde.

• Akira Kurosawa: Dersu Uzala

  The film is based on the descriptions of the Russian officer Arseniev. It shows us the life of the hunter Dersu in the wild Taiga and his friendship with the Russian soldier and explorer Vladimir Arseniev.

Music compact discs

As a musical entertainment we offer the following compact discs (accompanying text is in German):

• Okudshawa: Songs

• Vissotski: Songs

• M. Thorgevsky, D. Wiener: Russian gipsy songs For further details refer to www.wiener.ch Customers in Switzerland: please contact the artists directly.

• M. Thorgevsky, D. Wiener: Russian folk songs For further details refer to www.wiener.ch Customers in Switzerland please contact them directly

• M. Thorgevsky, D. Wiener: Russian Chansons For further details refer to www.wiener.ch Customers in Switzerland please contact them directly

• Sergey Taneev: Twelve choirs on Yakov Polonsky poems.