Orthodox Chant in Harmonia Mundi's HM Gold series is a reissue of a disc released in 2003 under the title The Powers of Heaven. It was the second recording Paul Hillier made during his tenure with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and it covers a sampling of Eastern Orthodox sacred literature dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These were the first centuries in which coherent literature was produced for Russian Orthodox choirs singing in Old Church Slavonic, and the arrival of Italian composers in ...
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Orthodox Chant in Harmonia Mundi's HM Gold series is a reissue of a disc released in 2003 under the title The Powers of Heaven. It was the second recording Paul Hillier made during his tenure with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and it covers a sampling of Eastern Orthodox sacred literature dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These were the first centuries in which coherent literature was produced for Russian Orthodox choirs singing in Old Church Slavonic, and the arrival of Italian composers in the middle of the eighteenth century had a strong impact on this uniformly unaccompanied music; they too are represented in selections from Baldassare Galuppi and Giuseppe Sarti.From the very first second of this disc it is apparent what a consistently beautiful tone Hillier is able to draw from this Estonian choir; moreover, he is extremely patient with the pacing of this music -- a critical element -- and sweats such details as the proper intonation of very low bass notes often...
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