Praise the Lord in 25 words or less
December 18, 2007
Album: Praise the Lord- the Orthodox Sacred Music of the Late 19th and the Early 20th Centuries
Composer: S. Rachmaninov, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Grechaninov, P. Chesnokov, A. Lvov, A. Archangelsky, M. Balakirev, K. Shvedov
Artist: Chamber Choir KIEV
Conductor: Unknown
Rating: ★★★★★
Expressive singing, huge dynamic range, excellent Slavonic diction, and possibly the finest male voices I've heard make this a must-own.
Composer: S. Rachmaninov, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Grechaninov, P. Chesnokov, A. Lvov, A. Archangelsky, M. Balakirev, K. Shvedov
Artist: Chamber Choir KIEV
Conductor: Unknown
Expressive singing, huge dynamic range, excellent Slavonic diction, and possibly the finest male voices I've heard make this a must-own.
Find it at Amazon.com | iTunes
This is an amazing collection of many Russian Orthodox "standards", and the choral performance itself certainly deserves 5 stars. There are also some less frequently heard selections, which is a very welcome bonus.
I waffled a bit on giving the CD 5 stars overall, though, so I figured I should mention the reasons briefly. First, I believe that some of the selections, while impeccably performed, seem slightly out of place sonically when listening to the overall sound of the album. Track 3, Rachmaninov's "To Thee We Sing", is an example. It doesn't seem to fit in the otherwise well-chosen flow of tracks 1 through 5. If you listen on random, you may never notice this kind of thing.
Second, there are some direction choices that do not make sense to my ears. As one example, on the final track, Tchaikovsky's "Praise the Lord from the Heavens", the second half of the Alleluia section is sung in double tempo (or at least significantly higher tempo). To my ears, it does not work, and is especially noticeable as the closing sound of the entire album.
I am, of course, picking nits. This album is the finest performance of Russian Orthodox master works in my collection.
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