On November 17, Cappella Records is proud to present its 32nd release: the world-première recording of Daniel Knaggs' Two Streams, performed by the Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir led by Robert Simpson, with string ensemble Kinetic and world-class soloists. With musical threads dyed in Medieval, baroque, and contemporary colors, Knaggs' 2021 cantata weaves a breathtaking tapestry, an exploration of love and mercy that gives profound meaning to the transitory nature of life. Two Streams is structured around the words of Polish nun Maria Faustina Kowalksa (1905–1938). From a poor family that struggled during the years of the First World War, she joined the Congregation of Sisters of Mercy where she received heavenly messages to share with the world, inspiring this sublime music by Daniel Knaggs.

The Eastern Orthodox understanding of repentance doesn’t dwell on morose sorrow for past transgressions. Instead it focuses on deliverance and optimism: repentance, from the Greek metánoia, is a change of mind, a fundamentally positive redirection. This recording presents Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox choral works for the first time as a service (or office) of supplication (Greek paráklesis, Slavonic molében). The office is built around the singing of a Byzantine poem called a kanon, on this occasion three odes from Pärt’s monumental Kanon Pokajanen (Kanon of Repentance).

Compositions by Pärt likewise comprise the other elements of this office: a Gospel reading marks the center of the service (The Woman with the Alabaster Box) completed by psalmody, Orthodox hymns, and fervent prayers. Pärt’s transcendent “Prayer after the Kanon” eventually gives way to silence, to the prayer of the heart. Cappella Romana transforms hearts and minds through encounters with the sacred musical inheritance of the Christian East and West, bringing to life these ancient and diverse traditions, especially of Byzantium, and their interactions with other cultures. Cappella Romana is devoted to the stewardship of this precious jewel of world culture. Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance is Cappella Romana’s 31st release.

REVIEWS:

In this album, the stars, the galaxies, all the wonders of a distant universe seem to touch us through the medium of sound. Whether or not one is knowledgeable about Eastern sacred music, this is an album of supreme artistry to cherish, heed, and enjoy.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana’s Odes of Repentance is a selection of Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox works woven into a service of public and private prayers of supplication and renewal. While Pärt is widely identified with works having an Eastern spiritual flavor, his pedagogical background derives from Western classical music and the musical traditions of the Roman Catholic church. However, since his conversion to Orthodoxy some 50 years ago, the public has come to associate Pärt with music as inspired by Eastern Christianity.

Odes consists of 12 spellbinding tracks which give voice to the human yearning to be cleansed of past mistakes and to make positive changes in one’s future life. As the excellent booklet notes in Church Slavonic and English tell us, these prayers are less an expression of sorrow than they are an affirmation of rebirth. This renascence is expressed eloquently through Pärt’s music in an imaginative flow of melodies, modal harmonies, unexpected twists and turns, and the composer’s unique tintinnabuli technique.

What I found most absorbing in this recording was the variety of musical utterances, the splendid multiplicity of sounds, rhythms and tremors. Something new is lurking around the corner of every measure, sometimes as puzzling as our own contemplated destinies.

The album begins with an Ode from the Triodion and two Slavic Psalms (Psalm 131, “Lord, my heart is not haughty” King James Version [KJV] and the Doxology Psalm 116). The Ode is the first of three in this recording from the Triodion, a liturgical book used in the Eastern Church during Lent. Seven selections from the Kanon of Repentance shine at the heart of the album.

These tracks could not be more different. Slow staccato notes tiptoe under a silvery upper register in the third track while an almost Western sensibility shapes the sound of the fourth (did I hear a touch of Mahler?). The swinging rhythms and unexpected pauses of Kanon Ode 9 remind us that “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”, but, rather, in a world that sometimes stretches far beyond the Western orientation of many listeners.

The album also includes a sung “reading” from the Gospel of Matthew, “The Woman with the Alabaster Box” (“There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.” KJV). Pärt’s music floats effortlessly from the ensemble and melts into the next selection, scattered with little discords.

This is Cappella Romana’s 31st album. While the group specializes in the sacred music of the Christian East and West, it is known largely for its stewardship of the music of Byzantium and the works of Arvo Pärt. Those of us raised in Western cultural traditions have missed much if we have ignored or been deprived of the legacy of Eastern sacred music, old or new. There is a core of authenticity in Pärt’s work that has endeared it, even in his lifetime, to millions around the world.

-- ConcertoNet

At the end of the fourteenth century, musical worlds collided in England as Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos spent Christmas at King Henry IV’s royal court. For the first and only time, florid chant, polyphony, royal ceremonial, and imperial acclamations from both kingdoms and rites echoed antiphonally in London’s Eltham Palace. Cappella Romana’s performance is illuminated by the latest research on historically informed performance of medieval music. Cappella Romana tells this musical story of cultural contact in international crisis with clarity and beauty.

Travel back to a Christmas like no other before or since, with music for the Nativity of Christ not heard in centuries. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth. A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court is Cappella Romana’s 30th release.

REVIEW:

What is most striking here is that Cappella Romana, although deeply immersed in Byzantine ways of singing, also accomplishes a very different and distinctive sound for the English pieces, adding an appealing bit of gravel in the texture. As with other Cappella Romana recordings, this one was splendidly recorded at the Madeleine Parish in Portland, Oregon. With detailed booklet notes exploring the various issues involved, this is a unique and fascinating medieval release.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Cappella Records proudly announces the release of Robert Kyr’s All-Night Vigil, performed by Cappella Romana, directed by founder and music director Alexander Lingas. Robert Kyr’s All-Night Vigil takes its formal inspiration from Sergei Rachmaninoff, who in 1915 set the same 15 selections from the Orthodox vigil for the Resurrection. Here Kyr employs an English translation of those selections by the late Archmandrite Ephrem (Lash), to whom this Vigil is dedicated.

Kyr blends Byzantine and Slavic musical traditions with a distinctly personal idiom, granting a fresh approach for those familiar with these texts, and a deeply moving point of entry for those encountering them for the first time.

Classical Net on Cappella Romana’s 2014 recording of Robert Kyr’s A Time For Life: “There is perhaps no choir that can sing this kind of music more beautifully than Cappella Romana… singing with real emotion and depth… which requires no religion to enjoy, but only heart and soul.” Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West, embracing Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth.

Discover here a performance unlike any other of John Tavener’s Ikon of Light, his landmark setting of the Prayer to the Holy Spirit by the great medieval mystic St. Symeon the New Theologian. Scored for choir and string trio, it is a radiant meditation on the Uncreated Light. Six Orthodox composers collaborated to create Heaven and Earth: A Song of Creation, written for Cappella Romana and its unique musical capacities. Each section of this ecstatic setting in English of the Psalm of the Cosmos (103 lxx) seamlessly unites into a transcendent work Byzantine chant, lush Slavic harmonies, Renaissance counterpoint, Georgian-inspired polyphony, and more. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth. Heaven and Earth is Cappella Romana’s 27th release.

Frank La Rocca extends the genre of the festal Missa solemnis in his Mass of the Americas, a sublime setting of the Traditional Latin Mass for choir and orchestra. La Rocca weaves a rich tapestry with serene Gregorian chants, folk melodies from 18th-century regions of México, and florid praises in Nahuatl, the language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego in 1531. Cultures past and present are joined musically as a witness to faith, hope, and reconciliation in this masterpiece of liturgical art.

Cappella Romana presents the last major sacred work composed in Russia after the imposition of Communism: Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg. Born into a Jewish family in Vilnius, Steinberg became the student and son-in-law of Rimsky-Korsakov, a classmate of Stravinsky, and the teacher of Shostakovich. Steinberg’s Passion Week was composed 1921–1926; however, the work was never performed complete. Unlike Gretchaninoff ’s similar collection, nearly every movement is based upon medieval chant melodies, arranged by Steinberg in rich choral textures to magnify their intrinsic power and spirituality. As a bonus, the disc features select hymns for Passion Week arranged by Steinberg’s father-in-law, Rimsky-Korsakov.

This release beautifully showcases the Akáthistos Hymn to the Virgin Mary, set by Ivan Moody. This lyrical masterpiece in 24 stanzas has been treasured for nearly 1,500 years by Eastern Christians. Father Moody’s 1998 setting, composed specially for the ensemble, weaves beloved Greek melodies into Russian choral textures as it progresses from reverent contemplation to ecstatic transcendence. Father Ivan Moody studied music and theology at the Universities of London, Joensuu, and York. He studied composition with Brian Dennis, Sir John Tavener, and William Brooks. His music has been broadcast and performed all over the world. He is an archpriest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is Chairman of the International Society for Orthodox Music. This is the world premiere recording of this work.

Cappella Romana, a vocal chamber ensemble renowned for its ''robust and intriguing music'' (Washington Post), releases its latest recording ''Live in Greece.'' Its previous release ''Music of Byzantium'' sold over 14,000 copies. A 1000-year journey from Constantinople to California, ancient Byzantine chants are followed by musical encounters with Crusaders and Venetians, including Greek and Latin polyphony from Renaissance Crete. East meets West again at St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles, where Frank Desby founded a tradition, continued by his Californian peers of Greek-American choral music.

“Full throated, full bodied, full of joy, these singers breathe passionate life into a rare and rarefied repertory. You’ll be willingly transported to their magical island. Bravo.” —Susan Hellauer (Anonymous 4) The Crusades brought to Cyprus French kings, whose imported musical traditions flourished alongside those of their Greek subjects. The vibrancy of their Mediterranean soundscape is captured in this recording, which traverses the diverse range of sacred music heard during the fifteenth century in Nicosia’s Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals: Greek and Latin hymns celebrating the divine patronage of St. Hilarion of Gaza, lavish prayers for French royalty set to Ars Nova polyphony from the codex Torino J.II.9, and virtuosic Byzantine chants by Constantinopolitan and Cypriot composers. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth.

This release by Cappella Romana is a breathtaking collection of Medieval Byzantine Chant sung from manuscripts made at the Abbey of Grottaferrata in the suburban hills of Rome, which has operated continuously in the Byzantine rite since its founding, before the Great Schism, in 1004. During the Middle Ages, Grottaferrata was the site of an important scriptorium, the surviving manuscripts of which bear precious witness to musical repertories sung in Constantinople before the Crusader sack of 1204.

Led by virtuoso cantor Ioannis Arvanitis, Cappella Romana recaptures on this recording the artistic vibrancy of medieval Italy's Greek minority with ecstatic 13th-century chants. Disc one is devoted to the life and work of the monastery's founders St. Neilos and St. Bartholomew, including kontakia in their honor, and an excerpt of a kanon for St. Benedict that was very likely composed for a Greek-rite all-night vigil at the Benedictine community at Montecassino in Sicily. Disc two features music for Pentecost, beginning with excerpts of its two kanons, the alleluiarion, and the communion verse for the feast. The central work on disc two is the Teleutaion (Final Antiphon) of the kneeling vespers in the medieval cathedral rite, featuring extended psalmody and ecstatic settings of the angelic refrain "Alleluia," foreshadowing the beautified ("kalophonic") chant of St. John Koukouzeles.

The booklet features a substantial essay on the music and its context by musicologist and Cappella Romana artistic director Dr. Alexander Lingas, and complete original texts in Greek with English translations by Archimandrite Ephrem (Lash). Beautiful photography of the Byzantine Abbey of Grottaferrata, taken on Cappella Romana's tour there in May 2006, illustrates the booklet, as well as a sample of medieval Byzantine notation (as opposed to contemporary notation in the received tradition) drawn from the opening verse of the Teleutaion in the Grottaferrata manuscript Psaltikon Ashburnamensis 64. The CDs combined feature over 82 minutes of music. Two CDs (CD1: The Founders of Grottaferrata; CD2: The Feast of Pentecost).

"This profoundly moving and powerful music bears witness to how ancient Greek and Latin liturgical traditions were richly embellished during the Renaissance on the islands of Crete and Cyprus, all within the shared cultural space of Venetian rule. First performed by Cappella Romana at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht (Netherlands). Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth. “A sound world of unique beauty.” (Gramophone) “You’d have to have ice water in your veins to not be moved.” (Willamette Week)

Probably because I had not thought about it, it had never occurred to me that there would be a thriving Orthodox Church in Finland, little less a school of Orthodox music. Of course, as British conductor, composer, scholar, and Orthodox priest Ivan Moody points out in his edifying notes to this release, the Orthodox connection is the Russian connection. The Finnish Orthodox Church, one of the two Finnish state-recognized churches along with the more expected Evangelical Lutheran Church, dates back to the 12th century and Novgorodian missionaries and the later establishment of monasteries. With independence for Finland came separation from the Russian Church and an alignment with the Patriarchate of Constantinople as an autonomous archdiocese in 1923. Finnish Orthodox music is derived principally from its Russian roots and is molded by the distinctive Finnish culture and language.

The music on this release—all of it a cappella and all polyphonic—includes what is, to these rather novice ears, some of the most adventurous music built on the Orthodox traditions. One has only to hear the decidedly lush, late-Romantic harmonies applied by Pekka Attinen (1885–1956) in his Kerubiveisu (Cherubic Hymn) No. 3 to realize that the Finnish Orthodox Church is more open than some to musical innovation. Attinen’s student Peter Mirolybov (1918–2004) was inspired by his teacher’s progressive approach to liturgical music, as is evident in the crystalline clarity, born of modern harmonization, of his four works for the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. The innovative voice leading used by Boris Jakubov (1894–1923) in his lovely Ehtooveisu (Evening Hymn) suggests that he would have explored more new paths if he had lived longer. Leonid Bashmakov (b. 1927), better known for his secular writing, creates his own melodies but retains the sound of the traditional chants in the Ikos and Exaposteilarion No. 2 for Easter. (American Tikey Zes has done the same in his latest liturgy, but it is unusual.) Timo Ruottinen’s (b. 1947) setting of the Alkupsalmi (Psalm 103) is notable for his use of a traditional chant melody with decidedly unexpected harmonies without losing the identity of the former or the surprise of the latter.

Not all of the works performed here are exceptionally progressive. Attinen’s exquisite Saata, oi Kristus (Kontakion: With the Saints give rest, O Christ) is less groundbreaking than his Kerubiveisu in style, but no less effective for that. Ruottinen’s Trisagion emphasizes the traditional melody, with echoes of some of the more traditional harmonizations. Mikko Sidoroff is known for his decidedly non-traditional approach to setting Orthodox chant, but his Kerubiveisu No. 4, while it occasionally pushes the envelope of tradition, makes most of its luminous effect through fairly conservative means.

The longest work on the disc, Te Apostolit…, and the only one by a non-Finnish composer, is a tribute to Finnish Orthodox music by Ivan Moody. The composer uses the traditional Byzantine melody to set the text on the death of Mary the mother of Jesus (The Exapostilarion for the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God), but the setting is unconventional and definitely not liturgical. It is hauntingly presented, as Moody explains, in sections representing, among other things, a lullaby and a funeral march.

Ivan Moody conducted this program in 2008 with Cappella Romana, and it was that concert that led to this recording. The performances are polished and technically secure. The sound of the choir is brighter and whiter than in some other recordings, which may reflect a stylistic quality of Finnish Orthodox singing. It is not at all unpleasant, just different. One small complaint: The choir produces oddly clipped alleluias in Attinen’s Kerubiveisu No. 3. It is the one executional oddity in an otherwise exemplary production. Recommended to anyone with an interest in rarely explored liturgical music in a relatively contemporary idiom.

FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

GRAMMY®-nominated conductor and composer Benedict Sheehan leads The Saint Tikhon Choir in his new setting of the Eastern Orthodox Vespers in English. Inspired by the great All-Night Vigil setting by Rachmaninoff, Sheehan’s composition expands the genre with full settings of Psalms. Each verse is treated with deep musical pathos to express a full range of human emotion. Vespers also features virtuosic vocal solos, including the first for basso profundo in English. Soloists include Fotina Naumenko, soprano; Helen Karloski, mezzo-soprano; Timothy Parsons, countertenor; Paul D’Arcy, tenor; Jamal Sarikoki and Michael Hawes, baritones; Jason Thoms, bass; and Glenn Miller, basso profundo.

Encounter this music that projects a vision of hope and light for all. The Saint Tikhon Choir was founded in 2015 by Benedict Sheehan, the group’s artistic director, and Abbot Sergius of St. Tikhon’s Monastery. It is the first professional vocal ensemble connected with an Orthodox monastery in America, founded with a mission to foster and build up the American Orthodox choral tradition at the highest artistic level.

A 2021 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Choral Performance!

** Physical package includes CD and Pure-Audio Blu-Ray with high-resolution and surround formats, and video selections of the world premiere concert and complete liturgical performance. **

Benedict Sheehan’s landmark setting of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in English grows out of the tradition of the great Russian liturgy settings by Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninoff, and Tchaikovsky. Reminiscent of medieval Eastern chant, minimalism, American folk singing, and the high tradition of Western church music, it is also hailed by Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America as “a new milestone for Orthodoxy in America.”

Sheehan’s sweeping and virtuosic a cappella Liturgy represents a fresh and vibrant voice for choral music today.

The Saint Tikhon Choir was founded in 2015 by Benedict Sheehan, the group’s artistic director, and Abbot Sergius of St. Tikhon’s Monastery. It is the first professional vocal ensemble connected with an Orthodox monastery in America, founded with a mission to foster and build up the American Orthodox choral tradition at the highest artistic level.

ABOUT THE RECORDING

Sheehan’s Liturgy is the first of four planned releases on Cappella Records produced by multi-GRAMMY® Award winner Blanton Alspaugh and the engineering team at Soundmirror. Soundmirror’s outstanding orchestral, solo, opera, and chamber recordings have received more than 100 GRAMMY® nominations and awards, with releases on every major classical label.

This is also the first release of The Saint Tikhon Choir on Cappella Records. The Choir recently recorded a collaboration on Naxos with three other choirs and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Leonard Slatkin, which debuted at #1 on Billboard. They also previously recorded the sacred works of Benedict Sheehan for Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press.

The 2-disc deluxe set features both CD and PureAudio Blu-ray™ media with high-resolution 2.0 Stereo and 5.0 Surround versions (DSM192K/24bit), recorded in DSD and downloadable to audio servers and devices. The Blu-ray™ also contains three video performances: two concert selections from the world première performance and the complete liturgical première sung at St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, DC. The accompanying booklet provides an extensive essay by the composer, the full text of the Divine Liturgy, and beautiful photography.

BENEDICT SHEEHAN