The most popular of Glinka's A Farewell to St. Petersburg cycle setting poems by Nestor Kukolnik, Zhavronok (The Lark) is a sort of Russian Die Taubenpost (D. 957, No. 14), that is to say, it's lyrically sentimental to the point of being mawkish, melodically gloomy to the point of being melancholy, and harmonically morose to the point of being morbid. With a sweetly dolorous melody over a tenderly trilling piano accompaniment, Zhavronok may not be the most profound song of the St. Petersburg cycle, but it is surely the most infectious. ~ All Music Guide
