Strastnaya Sed'mista (Liturgy of Holy Week), for chorus, Op. 58
Alexander Grechaninov is known to some lucky listeners as one of the most effective composers of Eastern Orthodox-styled church music for unaccompanied voices to come out of the post-Romantic period. Grechaninov's Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, Opp. 13 and 29, contain some of the most moving and spiritually prescient music to be found on the other side of Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Op. 37. Even to those who know of Grechaninov's liturgical settings, his Passion Week, Op. 58, will come as a bit of a surprise. Composed on 13 ...
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Alexander Grechaninov is known to some lucky listeners as one of the most effective composers of Eastern Orthodox-styled church music for unaccompanied voices to come out of the post-Romantic period. Grechaninov's Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, Opp. 13 and 29, contain some of the most moving and spiritually prescient music to be found on the other side of Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Op. 37. Even to those who know of Grechaninov's liturgical settings, his Passion Week, Op. 58, will come as a bit of a surprise. Composed on 13 Old Slavonic texts used during Holy Week services, Passion Week isn't a liturgical work at all but an independent set of choruses in which Grechaninov is simply stretching out in his choral writing without having to stay true to the strictures of the Eastern Orthodox service; these works are designed for concert performance by an expert choir. Perhaps that is one reason why they are so obscure; performed once in St. Petersburg under the composer in 1913, they weren't heard again...
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