Sviridov: Canticles & Prayers / Klava, Latvian Radio Choir

$14.99
Label
Ondine
Release Date
May 11, 2018
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      SVIRIDOV, GEORGY
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Latvian Radio Choir
    • PERFORMER
      Klava
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      May 11, 2018
    • UPC
      761195132227
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      ODE 1322-2
    • LABEL
      Ondine
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. Inexpressible wonder: Lord, save the pious

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    2. Inexpressible wonder: Holy God

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    3. Inexpressible wonder: It is worthy to eat

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    4. Inexpressible wonder: Christmas Song

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    5. Inexpressible wonder: Glory and Halleluja

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    6. Inexpressible wonder: Inexpressible wonder

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    7. Having beheld a strange nativity: Glory to the most Holy Trinity

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    8. Having beheld a strange nativity: Come, let us worship

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    9. Having beheld a strange nativity: Glory (Monastic)

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    10. Having beheld a strange nativity: Repentance of the Prodigal Son

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    11. Having beheld a strange nativity: Glory (Quiet)

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    12. Having beheld a strange nativity: Have mercy on us, O Lord

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    13. Having beheld a strange nativity: Having beheld a strange nativity

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    14. From the Old Testament: The King of Glory

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    15. From the Old Testament: Song of Purification

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    16. From the Old Testament: The Earth is the Lord's

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    17. Other songs: Glorification of the Mother of God

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    18. Other songs: Entreaty to the apostle St. John the Theologian

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    19. Other songs: O Lord, stir up your strength

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    20. Other songs: Behold the bridegroom comes

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    21. Other songs: The Last Supper

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava

    22. Pasha krasnaya (The Red Easter)

      Composer: Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

      Ensemble: Latvian Radio Choir

      Conductor: Sigvards Kļava


This is a beautiful selection of Sviridov’s choral music.

Georgy Sviridov’s Canticles and Prayers is considered by many as one of the most important works in Russian sacred music. In this new recording the Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Klava offers impressive renditions of music from this collection by the Russian master. Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, began writing religious works in 1969. Since then these works have come to form an important part of his oeuvre. In the 1980s Sviridov had several projects to write a liturgy or a mass. In the end, the sketches of his sacred music came to form a cycle titled Canticles and Prayers. The work was created at a turning point in the history of Russia, the perestroika years that ended in the collapse of the Soviet state. The composer was keenly affected by the events of those years, building a monument to his era. The main body of Canticles and Prayers was assembled between 1988 and 1992. In September 1997, Sviridov selected the versions he thought best, approving the final order for the first three parts and making the final edits to the score. This work remained incomplete at the time of his death in 1998. Canticles and Prayers was thus Sviridov’s last work. The recording also includes the chorus The Red Easter based on a cycle of Easter hymns. Previous releases of the Latvian Radio Choir on Ondine have been highly successful. For instance, the recording of Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil was chosen as the Record of the Month, Editor’s Choice and received a nomination in the Gramophone Awards in 2013. Also, their more recent releases of choral works by Valentin Silvestrov and Eriks Esenvalds received Gramophone Editor’s Choice.

REVIEW:

This is a beautiful selection of Sviridov’s choral music. There is a subtlety to phrasing of the Latvian Radio Choir’s performance of the Trisagion (track 2, ‘Holy God’), for example, that often eludes Russian and Ukrainian choirs. And this serves them well too in the remarkable Having beheld a strange nativity, especially in the last movement, with its ‘increasing’ alleluias, and their mastery of dynamics means that they can bring it down to the quietest of pianissimos in nanoseconds.

The cycle on texts from the Old Testament is less familiar but has similarly outstanding moments—the second, ‘Sprinkle me with hyssop’, is particularly memorable in its alternation of male and female and choral groups—and in fact strikes me as one of the most likely works on this disc to enter the repertoire of Western choral ensembles. ‘Taynaya vechera’ might also do so, but here I come to my most serious reservation regarding this disc, which has nothing to do with the wonderful performances but everything to do with the disastrous translations in the booklet.

Do acquire this disc, listen to the frequently wonderful music and the consistently astounding performances but recycle the booklet.

– Gramophone