Georgy Sviridov, a leading composer of the late Soviet era in Russia, wrote a good deal of religious music, influenced by the Russian Orthodox legacy and by sacred works. The last years of Soviet rule saw a relaxation of official atheism, and these works earned Sviridov critical acclaim. Indeed, Sviridov greeted the Perestroika era and the impending fall of the Soviet Union with trepidation, and annotator Alexander Belonenko does well to compare the music here to Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, written in 1915 in a similar ...
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Georgy Sviridov, a leading composer of the late Soviet era in Russia, wrote a good deal of religious music, influenced by the Russian Orthodox legacy and by sacred works. The last years of Soviet rule saw a relaxation of official atheism, and these works earned Sviridov critical acclaim. Indeed, Sviridov greeted the Perestroika era and the impending fall of the Soviet Union with trepidation, and annotator Alexander Belonenko does well to compare the music here to Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, written in 1915 in a similar period of instability. (The Red Easter, however, refers not to Communism but to texts printed in red in an Orthodox liturgy.) Sviridov's a cappella sacred music has a different effect than Rachmaninov's; he uses less of the sub-bass sounds of the Russian tradition. But his harmonic practice is in the same realm, extended a bit. The sound of the Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Klava is well suited to Sviridov's lighter, rather mystical idiom. Another point of interest in the music...
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