Comparison
Recordings:
Rachmaninov: Vespers. Forrester, Rostropovich
Warner Elatus 0927495572
Bortnyansky: Sacred Concertos. Polyansky
Chandos CHAN 9729, 9783, 9840
Russia was Christianised
by royal decree in 988CE at which time
musical and religious scholars were
invited from Byzantium to Moscow to
establish the Russian Orthodox Christian
priesthood and train Russian musicians
to provide music for the services. In
1988, exactly 1000 years later, just
as the Soviet Union was beginning to
liberalise, a concert was held in Moscow
to celebrate this anniversary. Two years
later that concert was repeated before
microphones and the result is this gorgeous
digital recording.
We are of course familiar
with western composers writing religious
music in the western musical tradition
— masses, oratorios, te deums, etc.
— and since the 1960s Tchaikovsky’s
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom,
Op. 41 and Rachmaninov’s Vespers,
Op. 37 have been available in the West
on recordings. But I only recently found
out that Rimsky-Korsakov was "Kapellmeister"
to the court of Nicolas II and provided
church music for the royal chapel. I
have always known Atheists and Pagans
who attended Orthodox Christian church
services regularly just to hear the
music, the point being that whatever
your religious background, this is great
Russian music and you owe it to yourself
to hear it. This survey recording would
be a good way to start your collection
since all the music on it is first rate,
the styles are remarkably varied, and
the performance and recording are insuperable.
If after hearing this you want more,
the recordings listed at the top of
this review represent excellent choices.
Arkhangelsky is perhaps
the third most famous name on this disk,
and his work offers at times startling
echoes of the Mozart Requiem.
The Bortnyansky is strikingly beautiful,
this composer becoming well known and
attracting a following now that a complete
recording of his "sacred concertos"
is available.
Arkhipova and the chorus
sing with committed passion and reverence
throughout. Polyansky has made a number
of excellent orchestral recordings of
Russian music, but apparently he began
with this chorus, and there can’t be
any better training for an orchestral
conductor.
Paul Shoemaker
An excellent sampler
of the best of Russian church music
from many centuries ... see Full Review