Album Notes

Y. Kutatin & S. Baikov, basses/A. Karakuts, tenor/N. Gerasimova, soprano/Moscow Chamber Choir/Vladimir Minin
RACHMANINOV: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31

The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a standard Russian Orthodox liturgical text; Rachmaninov used it for the earlier of his two great sacred choral works (the other is the Vespers, or “All-Night Vigil”). This work of symphonic proportions was composed in less than three weeks. After it was completed, Rachmaninov wrote to a friend that he had been carried away by the project and that it had been a long time since he had written music with such pleasure. Vladimir Minin was born in St. Petersburg in 1929, where he received his early musical training singing in the boys’ choir. Minin went on to direct choirs throughout the former Soviet Union before founding the Moscow Chamber Choir in the early 1970s. With strong ties to various contemporary composers, Minin and his singers have premiered many works and have performed a wide range of repertory. In 2000, the choir recorded Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Taneyev’s cantata St. John of Damascus with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. The Moscow Chamber Choir can also be heard on a disc of Russian orchestral favorites in this series.