Alfred Schnittke: Choir Concerto (1994)

Mind-blowing music, by far the best recording of the Choir Concerto…
Unquestionably one of the choral masterpieces of the 20th century, Alfred Schnittke's Concerto for Mixed Chorus is the summation of Schnittke's style of "new simplicity". Written in the mid 1980s, it is an extended setting of words from "The Book of Lamentations" by the Armenian monk Grigor Narekatsi (951-1003). At 40 minutes, the Concerto is a challenging work for any chorus, but what so impresses both in the music and the performance here is its deceptive, organic simplicity. There's a wonderfully controlled ebb and flow to the phrasing and dynamics that belies the work's complexities.

Tracklist

Choir Concerto (1984/5)
(text by Grigor Narekatsi)

I. O pavelitel' sushcheva fsevo (O Master of all living) 17:12
II. Sabran' je pesen sikh, gde kazhdyj stikh (I, an expert in human passions) 8:36
III. Fsem tem kto vniknet fsushchnast (God, grant deliverance from sin) 11:57
IV. Sej trud, shto natchinal ja s upavan'jem (Complete this work which I began) 6:06


Elena Dof-Fonskaya, soprano
Russian State Symphonic Cappella
Valery Polyansky, conductor