Rendezvous at The Russian Tea Rooms

Since the early 1990s, the excellent French label Opus 111 has released a number of recordings by the Russian Patriarchate Choir, which was founded in 1980 by Anatoly Grindenko. Grindenko, a successful performer on the double-bass and viola de gamba, has combined a devotion to the living tradition of the Orthodox liturgy with important and original musicological scholarship. The result has been the careful editing and inspired performance of a number of manuscripts representing early, and sometimes all but lost, traditions of Orthodox chant.

The Russian Orthodox music presented here comes from the music for Great Lent, which is a meditation on the meaning of Holy Week. Great Lent or Velikiy Post, is the most important and one of the longest of the four Lenten periods in the year. It opens with a powerfully meditative chant 'Let all mortal flesh keep silent' which is specially sung only once a year along with the Old Testament lamentation 'By the rivers of Babylon'. The music here is, as usual with Orthodox chant, profoundly solemn and deeply meditative - some would say even mystical.

One thing you'll appreciate soon after you begin listening to this recording of Russian sacred Christmas music is how different Russian Orthodox Church traditions are from their Western counterparts. We are brought in touch with these differences only because of the remarkable efforts of Anatoly Grindenko and his Russian Patriarchate Choir, who nearly single-handedly restored ancient Orthodox liturgy to modern practice. This recording presents both monophonic and polyphonic chants, here recorded for the first time, which were used in various Russian monasteries during the 16th and 17th centuries. You won't recognize anything "Christmasy" here–the chants are specifically Russian, complete with drones and lots of open fourths and fifths, and follow the form of a service known as the "Vigil of the Nativity of Christ."

Founded by Anatoly Grindenko in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra monastery, near Moscow, the Moscow Russian Patriarchate Choir was created in 1980. Following tradition, it is composed of 12 to 13 members. The singers were all eminent researchers, passionate about the repertoire of compositions for male voices, from the religious music of the Orthodox Church to the lay songs of the final years of the Soviet regime. At the time, the choir spent several years deciphering ancient manuscripts and giving representations of works that had until then been in the shadows, sometimes for centuries. With the collapse of the USSR, the choir was able to open up to the world and perform in Europe and America, exposing its music to a much larger public.

Founded by Anatoly Grindenko in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra monastery, near Moscow, the Moscow Russian Patriarchate Choir was created in 1980. Following tradition, it is composed of 12 to 13 members. The singers were all eminent researchers, passionate about the repertoire of compositions for male voices, from the religious music of the Orthodox Church to the lay songs of the final years of the Soviet regime. At the time, the choir spent several years deciphering ancient manuscripts and giving representations of works that had until then been in the shadows, sometimes for centuries. With the collapse of the USSR, the choir was able to open up to the world and perform in Europe and America, exposing its music to a much larger public.