SELECTIONS FOR THE NEW LISTENER

The recordings in this New Listener selection are very good examples of Russian choral liturgical music. Three of the four represent the "big sound" of Slavonic liturgical music that many people associate with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian New Listener Package. You save 12% off purchase price when you order this package, which includes these CDs: Grand Orthodox Slavic Liturgy, Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Sacred Treasures, and Russian Church Music. To buy this package, click here.

Details for the New Listener

• Grand Orthodox Slavic Liturgy, by the Rybin Choir includes many of the major hymns of the Divine Liturgy sung in Church Slavonic by the most well known composers (Bortniansky, etc.).
• Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, by the Sophia Chorale includes almost all of the hymns of the Divine Liturgy, and while sung by a large choir that captures the beautiful sound of the liturgy, it has a more circumscribed feeling of being in a church.
• Sacred Treasures, a collection of various choirs, provides the big, full and rich sound of Russian Orthodox music by a range of composers that include Bortniansky, Tchaikovsky, etc. It is a compilation from various times and composers, providing a real cross section while at the same time a surprisingly integrated feel.
• Finally, Russian Church Music, by the Slavyanka Men's Chorus delivers the same hymnology from the Divine Liturgy, but sung by a male chorus of a few voices. Thus while the text, and even many of the arrangements, are the same, the sound and feel is much more akin to what is actually heard and experienced in the typical Russian Orthodox parish church on a typical Sunday.

These selections balance the “big sound” of Russian choral liturgical music with some of the variety that exists within the historical spectrum of Russian Orthodox liturgical music by introducing simpler chant forms.

Russian Intermediate Listener Package. You save 12% off purchase price when you order this package, which includes these CDs: Sacred Treasures 3, Russian Orthodox Music, Russian Easter: Canon of St. John of Damascus, and Chants from Valaam. To buy this package, click here.

Details for the Intermediate Listener

• While Sacred Treasures 3 has a variety of composers represented, the majority of the compositions are by Rachmaninoff. That makes it both beautiful and a little eclectic, and does move the feeling of the recording away from the traditional Russian choral sound–it is still wondrous.
• In contrast,Russian Orthodox Music by The Tallis Scholars is a cross-section of Russian polyphony from many composers. While this group isn't known for performing Russian music, they are professional singers, and unless you knew who was singing you couldn't tell the difference. It is eclectic in an entirely different way: besides a range of composers and periods, it includes one hymn from a hierarchal liturgy, and a contemporary arrangement by John Tavenner (in Russian, Greek and principally English) of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.
• The recording Russian Easter: Canon of St. John of Damascus by Anatoly Gridenko and the Russian Patriarchal Choir introduces the Intermediate Listener to a form of Russian chant from the 17th Century that is an example of the transition from monody to polyphony. This recording is an example of Russian part singing called Greco-Russian chant, and conveys some of the feeling of both its predecessor and its successor by the simplicity of the chant itself combined with the presence of polyphony in English.
• Finally, Chants from Valaam is a contemporary recording of Valaam chant from the monastery of the same name, and delivers both a simple and living chant form in its contemporary form.

A selection of Russian chant recoridngs that provides medieval chant of the Mass Proper as well as an example from other Latin rites.

Russian Advanced Listener Package. You save 12% off purchase price when you order this package, which includes these CDs: Divine Liturgy: Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Orthodox Mass: Early Russian Plainchant, Ancient Slavonic Chants, and Good Friday: Bulgarian Orthodox Liturgy. To buy this package, click here.

Details for the Advanced Listener

• Divine Liturgy: Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul is performed from a 17th century manuscript that has been transposed for a liturgical celebration, sung by Bishop, Deacon and choir. It is a wonderful experience of znamenny chant.
• Likewise, Orthodox Mass: Early Russian Plainchant is performed from another 17th century manuscript that presents Greco-Russian chant, also wondrous in its simplicity and splendor.
• Ancient Slavonic Chants is an example of similarly early chant from Bulgaria, a country that shares the same religious history and liturgical language and music as Russia. Most of the hymns are from the Divine Liturgy, with some festal hymns included, and as a Monitor Recording were recorded live in various monasteries and churches.
• Finally,Good Friday: Bulgarian Orthodox Liturgy is a collection of the hymnology of Good Friday in Holy Week. It is not early chant, nor is it the big choral sound, but it uniquely conveys some of the nuances of Bulgarian liturgical music. The CD includes the three odes of the Lamentation services.