Valeri Polyansky

The setting of 13 sacred musical texts is natural territory for Grechaninov, a member of the so-called 'new Russian choral school’ that included Sergey Rachmaninov and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. They were all associated with the Moscow Synodal School of Church Music and its Synodal Choir.

This is a striking, and very well-recorded pair of performances, well worth the attention of lovers of Russian music who have not yet encountered the works.

Polyansky and the Russian State Symphony have done Taneyev a superb service with these thoroughly prepared, expertly recorded performances. The music itself may be too firmly tied to academic apron-strings to be viable in the concert hall, and the composer’s verdict in not releasing them was surely the right one. But these are still need-to-know pieces for anyone interested in the Russian symphonic repertoire.

Rachmaninov - Vespers Op.37 - Valeri Polyansky (1990)
Melodiya | USSR | SUCD 10-00105 | 1990 | 1 CD | EAC Rip | FLAC (img + cue), LOG | Covers (jpg 300 dpi) | TT 66:32 | RAR 207 MB + 3% Recovery
Classical / Choir / Vocal

S.Rachmanihov wrote "Vespers" in 1915. It is a work of large scope, fully in keeping with the requirements of the genre and style of church music. At the same time "Vespers" bears the mark of the composer's unbounded imagination and is imbued with the poetry of antiquity and the enchantment of Russian folk art.

Tchaikovsky Choral Works - [The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir] Valeri Polyansky (1990)
Melodiya | USSR | SUCD 10-00015 | 1990 | 1 CD | EAC Rip | FLAC (img + cue), LOG | Covers (jpg 300 dpi) | TT 47:02 | RAR 166 MB + 3% Recovery
Classical / Choir / Vocal

Recordings of Tchaikovsky's compositions for choir — both secular and sacred — were made in an outstanding architectural monument possessing unique acoustics — St. Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk. The sound of the Chamber Choir in this Cathedral acquires amazingly beautiful and expressive colours: unique scope and ease, purity and clarity of each line, each voice, each singer, complete blending of voices.

Grechaninov was one of the many composers who did not like the takeover of power by the Bolsheviks in Russia. He seized the first opportunity to leave with both hands and took refuge in Paris. Just before the Second World War, in 1939, he chose New York as his permanent residence. Grechaninov wrote his first opera "Dobrinya Nikitich", in which the famous Shalyapin played the title role, under the inspiring leadership of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. As a convinced Russian Orthodox believer, he also wrote many religious works. "Liturgia domestica" from 1917 is based on the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.