Get it if you can find it
Lyle Crawford | BC, Canada | 01/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It is a real shame that "Russian Christmas: Vigil of the Nativity of Christ" in no longer available, but it is absolutely worth finding if you possibly can. I waited/searched for almost a year before I was finally able to secure a copy from the Netherlands. It was worth waiting for. And as Vernier says, this is a "Christmas" CD in name only. Whatever musical connotations that has for you can safely be set aside.My other favourite Russian Orthodox chant recordings are "Suprasl: Orthodox Mosiac" (see my review) and "Panikhida: Orthodox Requiem", which together contain some of the most challenging and beautiful music I know of. "Russian Christmas" is very much like a cross between these, as it contains both 16th century Suprasl monody and the otherworldly, even unsettling, polyphony of the 17th century. The recording quality is quite good (the best you'll find for this type of music), and the notes are helpful, as they contain a clearly worded glossary of relevant terms and a good description of the program by Anatoly Konotop, the musicologist primarily responsible for the salvaging of the Suprasl manuscript.Konotop writes: "The basic intention of the compiler of this CD has been to give the listener a chance to become acquainted with unknown examples of early music drawn from the Feasts of the Russian Orthodox Church, and to demonstrate the high degree of professionalism of the Russian schools of chant in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in order to show the importance and specific character of the Russian tradition of composition in the historical process of the development of European musical culture" (p.5).The chance and the lesson are very much appreciated. The result is nothing short of magnificent. It will likely not be easy to find a copy of this CD (unless it gets reissued), but I recommend that you spare no trouble or expense to do so."
Track Listings (29) - Disc #1