CD My Days

“I would like to explain the unconventional idea behind this disc by recalling a noteworthy and hardly accidental thought of our Metropolitan, the Most Reverend Philaret, that he uttered during the opening of the Festival about the interesting and useful reciprocal processes going on here: secular choirs start to be actively interested in performing church chants and doing it the right way, while church choirs improve their performance and become on a par with professional choirs.

We would like to bring one of the aspects of this “reverse” process to your attention: a choir which was created solely for singing in church, even if it consisted of professional musicians, sings secular music for the first time in all the years of its existence.

First of all, this music includes the high Russian classics, as well as the golden heritage of any nation — its folklore. Both have very natural links to the Church tradition, for they have the same roots: the Orthodox Christian references are key to vocal miniatures of prominent Russian composers, to folk songs, and to the works by the greatest Russian poets — Pushkin, Blok, and others who composed lyrics for many of the pieces we perform.

These are followed by several spiritual but non-liturgical hymns: the ones that you will not hear during worship but that nevertheless comfort the faithful emotionally. These songs include “O Most Holy Theotokos,” “Adam's Lament,” “My Days,” and some other songs.

We hope that the inevitable drwabacks of live recording will not leave the listeners without the joy of listening to Russian Orthodox music and poetry.”
Irina Denisova