I'm afraid my opinion of this recording differs from my colleague
John Quinn, who rated it as a Recording of the Month last week.
According to the blurb on the back of this disc, Classic FM has declared:
”Tenebrae is current master of the Russian Sound.”
Er, no; that’s exactly what they are not and five minutes’
comparison with genuine Russian choirs will confirm it. My touchstones
are venerable past and present choirs in my collection such as the
Novospassky Monastery Choir, the Russian State Symphonic Capella and
the State Academic Russian Choir USSR - or even the Bulgarian National
Choir, obviously non-native but still steeped in the right choral
tradition.
I have hitherto unstintingly admired and praised every release from
this wonderful choir that I have heard. Tenebrae sings beautifully
and their artistic director and founder Nigel Short is a superb
singer-musician, but he is not Polyansky or Sveshnikov and this latest
issue is a bridge too far. Indeed, I began to lose interest some time
before the end of the programme for three reasons:-
1) no version here eclipses those performed by native choirs and indelibly
burned in my memory as the immutable standard whereby any subsequent
performance must be judged;
2) the interpretations are so similar and unvaried in mood that I
get no sense of the spiritual conviction which should inform the text;
almost every piece is redolent of the atmosphere of a devotional offering
sung in the chapel of an English country house or an Oxbridge College;
3) the essential sound is that of an English choir; the basses remind
me of Dr Johnson’s dog, insofar as they have the low notes but
they are more groaned than resonated.
Five of the eighteen pieces here are from Rachmaninov’s famous
“All-Night Vigil” and three are from his “Liturgy
of St John Chrysostom”. Other inclusions are standard classics
such as baritone Nikolay Kedrov’s “Our Father” (“Otche
nash”); hence there is no shortage of comparative versions,
so let me offer specific, individual examples of where I think Tenebrae
fails to deliver. Many are gems of brevity, lasting no more than two
or three minutes but extraordinarily intense both emotionally and
musically. So I will not plough through every work, but let me begin
with that “Our Father”, which approaches the numinous
but remains much too fast and small-scale. Admittedly, it was written
for a vocal quartet who sang with Chaliapin, but a voice of his type
is not in evidence here and we have become used to the grand choral
arrangement. The opening track is Gretchnaninov’s “Now
the Powers of Heaven”; it is lovely but so refined as to lose
the requisite sense of elation and the basses, although adequate,
are tame. The “Nunc dimittis” (track 2) is also a full
two minutes quicker than Sveshnikov’s classic version and thus
far too fast. The lack of pulse means that we are cheated of the effect
Rachmaninov intended of reproducing the sound of great bells swinging.
The celebrated concluding low B flat is “there” but little
more than a simulation of the real thing and the tenor soloist sounds
far too pale and polite where a ringing Russian tenor with some edge
and power is needed. “Pridiite” (track 4) is yet again
too fast and sounds like what it is: an English choir gently inviting
us rather than a jubilant and imperative summons from Old Russia.
The “Ave Maria” (track 11) has a meltingly beautiful melody
with a lovely melismata on “raduysia” (“rejoice”).
An echt Russian choir leans energetically into the first beat
of every bar; here, that effect goes for nothing. The “Alliluiya”
ostinato of “Blessed is the Man” (track 12) is bland and
without conviction to the point that the piece sounds like a second-rate
Renaissance Requiem. Nothing is made of the arresting modulations
and surprising intervals; they pass without emphasis. Finally, “To
Thee, Victorious Leader” (track 18), surely meant to be a glorious,
climactic paean to the Pantocrator, here takes on the character of
a tripping medieval carol. Perhaps that explains why Tenebrae
sounds most at home in the English text version of Tchaikovsky’s
“Legend” (track 16).
If I seem ungrateful for this disc, I can only say that although I
can see how this issue should be welcomed as a means of introducing
a wider public to the glories of Russian liturgical music, I would
nonetheless urge that new audience to sample more authentic performances
in order to hear it at its best.
Ralph Moore
Previous review: John
Quinn
Full contents list
Alexander GRETCHANINOV (1864-1956)
Nine sili nebesniya [5.40]
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
Nine otpushchayeshi [3.33]
Nikolay GOLOVANOV (1891-1953)
Heruvimskaya [4.35]
RACHMANINOV Priidite, poklonimsia [2.07]
Heruvimskaya [4.29]
Tebe poyem [2.21]
GOLOVANOV Slava Ottsu [3.59]
Pavel CHESNOKOV (1877-1944)
Svete tihiy [2.50]
Tebe poyem [3.38]
Viktor KALINNIKOV (1870-1927)
Svete tihiy [2.24]
RACHMANINOV Bogoroditse Devo [3.06]
Blazhen muzh [5.37]
Otche nash [3.54]
CHESNOKOV Heruvimskaya [2.25]
GOLOVANOV Otche Nash [3.29]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Legend [2.55]
Nikolay KEDROV (1871-1940)
Otche Nash [2.34]
RACHMANINOV Vzbrannoy voyevode [1.46]
