MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 


Support us financially by purchasing this from
Sacred Russian Choral Works
Akafist Male Choir/Andrei V. Malutin
rec. 1993, Philadelphia, USA. DDD
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC CD98.049 [63:17]

Devotees of Russian choral music will recognise the names of many of the composers here, most of whose lives spanned the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. They were as such instrumental in the revival of Russian liturgical music via the conservatories. Other selections are drawn from traditional Znamenny and Kiev chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus this bargain compilation makes an excellent introduction to an idiom which remains highly attractive to Western listeners whose ears are less used to the peculiarly resonant and plaintive timbre of real Russian choirs singing music of a highly “vertical” character.

If I have any reservations regarding what appears to be the first issue of a recording made over twenty years ago in Philadelphia and in good digital sound, it is that the choir, although absolutely authentic sounding, is rather small to do complete justice to the massive, hieratic dignity of these works. They number only fifteen, plus two additional soloists in two items, perhaps because they were on tour. Furthermore, although this all-male choir of professional singers is wonderfully homogeneous and features pure-toned counter-tenors down to real black Russian basses with a resonant low A at their command, when individuals step forward to sing solos their tone is not always very grateful. We hear, for example, some quite nasal and abrasive tenors in tracks 13 and 15, singing in the worst Russian tradition. That is all the more surprising when one notes that the tenor soloist in the latter appears to have been specifically imported into the choir for that track. Nor is the bass soloist in track 16 very satisfactory, being rather grainy and undistinguished.

As much as I otherwise enjoyed this anthology, there are others which are also bargain-priced, better sung and offer a more varied and interesting selection. I would especially recommend the Naxos "Russian Chant for Vespers” (8.553123) sung by the incredibly rich-toned and animated Novospassky Monastery Choir, recorded in the same year as this Akafist recital. For purposes of comparison, listen to the opening track on their CD on which is sung almost the same music as on this Hänssler disc. You will hear that there is much more swing, exultancy and energy in the Novospassky choir, whereas the Akafist sound too restrained and correct. Otherwise, there are alternative compilations such as the series “Sacred Treasures – Choral Masterworks from Russia” on the “Hearts of Space” label, licensed from Adagio recordings, which, although there are some hissy analogue tracks, really gives a better flavour of this great Russian tradition.

No texts or annotations are provided beyond a brief biography of the director and his choir.
 
Ralph Moore

Track listing
1. Easter Troparion
2. God is with us (Zinoviev)
3. Vouchsafe, O Lord
4. Blessed is the Man (Ledkovsky)
5. Lord, I call upon You
6. Troparion of Repentance (Archangelsky)
7. Hymn of Simeon the Just (Kastalsky)
8. From my Youth (Chesnokov)
9. Kondak to the Mother of God (Schvedov)
10. Archangel’s Voice (Schorin)
11. From my Youth
12. O gladsome Light
13. Hiermos to the Mother of God (Golovanov*)
14. Beatitudes (Christov)
15. Hymn of the Resurrection (Chesnokov)
16. Litia Ektenia (Chesnokov)
17. The Creed (Grechaninov)
18. Pascal Canon, the Angel cried (Makarov)
19. Who is so great a God as our God
20. Molebin Prayer of St. Ambrose (Bortniansky)
(*misspelt as “Golonov” in the credits)