Russkaya Cappella Online Festival of Music

This piece returns us to choral music after the delightful loopiness of Shostokovich's dancing noses. Alexander Gretchaninoff was a contemporary of Rachmaninoff and Kastalsky, and like them, wrote large-scale works for choir in the second decade of the twentieth century. Gretchaninoff is probably best known in choral circles for his All Night Vigil, which predates Rachmaninoff's setting by three years.  His settings of music for Passion Week may be less familiar; this version of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence starts serenely and concludes with a double-choir mimicking the distinctive sound of Russian bells.

This piece is another choice from Richard, our President.  And...deep breath folks...it is written by an Icelander!  Hildur Gu ðnad ó ttir composed the soundtrack for the recent HBO / Sky UK television drama Chernobyl, based on the events of 1986. Here the soundtrack uses an arrangement of Vechnaya pamyat' (Eternal Memory), usually sung during a funeral or memorial service. This recording is sung by  Homin Lviv Municipal Choir  

Our next selection, Evening Bells, has been made by George, our committee's Tenor Representative. He writes "This song is a family favourite and, interestingly, our familial love for it can be traced back at least a century. My great-grandfather George used to love it, my grandmother Alla loves it, my mum too and so do I. The lyrics of this song were adapted from a poem written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore, in his collection National Airs ." This version is sung by the Moscow Patriarchal Choir, and is borrowed with our thanks from Norman Fowler Sutton's extensive YouTube channel, where a  transliteration and translation of the lyrics can be found.

Our first piece of the weekend was chosen by our President, Richard, who sings bass and is particularly fond of the musical genre known as Romance (not quite folk songs, but still typically Russian and likely to be sung at social gatherings.) As we haven't sung together for a while we're bringing you a version with the lyrics, karaoke style.  In true Russkaya Cappella fashion we have a transliteration below for those of us who don't (yet) read Russian fluenty, so we can practice at home. Our usual orthography applies: ŏ is the neutral vowel, e sounds more like ye, ' replaces the soft sign etc. E- kha- li na troi- ke s bu- ben- tsa- mi, A vda- li mel’- ka- li ŏ - gon’- ki… Ekh, k ŏ- gda by mne te- per’ za va- mi, Du- shu by ra- zve- yat’ ŏ t t ŏ- sci! Dŏ- ro- gai dlin- nŏ- yu, Pŏ- go- dai lun- nŏ- yu, Da s pe- snei toi, Shto vdal’ le- tit zve- nya, I s toi sta- rin- no- yu, Da c se- mi- strun- nŏ- yu Shto pŏ nŏ- cham Tak mu- chi- la mu- nya. La ...