In Reply to: Alexander Gretchaninoff / Maximilian Steinberg Passion Week - more posted by Chris from Lafayette on April 14, 2015 at 13:51:21:
Chris, you mentioned Rachmaninoff's "Vespers," which certainly is a step up from Grechaninov's "Passion Week." Personally, I'm not much interested in long choral works. It takes something special to pull me in to choral music.One choral work I can recommend for anyone, even those who hate choral music, is Taneyev's "John of Damascus" (variously titled Joann Damaskin, etc). As much as I admire Rachmaninoff and his cantatas, there is no doubt that Taneyev's "John of Damascus" is the greatest purely choral work (by which I mean, no soloists) ever written in Russian or by a Russian. The lines in the piece are from Tolstoy. "I travel along a path that is unknown to me." The opening movement would bring a resolute atheist to his knees in awe of its sheer beauty. And for those not crazy about choral music, it is blessedly brief (only around 23 minutes).
Taneyev studied with and was a close friend of Tchaikovsky, and became a noted pedagog himself. His students included Gli
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 04/14/15
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Follow Ups
- An alternative, even for those who hate choral music - Amphissa 16:50:15 04/14/15 (15)
- What happened to my post? Half of it is gone. Trying again. - Amphissa 20:32:41 04/14/15 (8)
- Agree the Petrenko YouTube version you linked to is the best I can find.... - Ivan303 20:10:11 04/15/15 (7)
- But better is .... - Amphissa 08:48:12 04/16/15 (0)
- The Polyansky is not as good as the Petrenko or the Pletnev [nt] - Amphissa 20:18:13 04/15/15 (5)
- Good to know... - Ivan303 11:32:56 04/16/15 (4)
- Or. . . you could get the CD-quality (lossless) download for £9.99 - Chris from Lafayette 17:36:03 04/16/15 (3)
- Working now... - Ivan303 12:55:02 04/17/15 (0)
- OOOOPS... - Ivan303 08:27:19 04/17/15 (1)
- Did the link not work? - it still appears to work for me - Chris from Lafayette 10:54:22 04/17/15 (0)
- I don't know "John of Damascus" yet - I look forward to discovering it - Chris from Lafayette 19:21:29 04/14/15 (0)
- LKJ Setright said that "The Dream of Gerontius" could make ANYONE a Christian for 90 minutes - John Marks 17:32:34 04/14/15 (3)
- Lost BBC live performance... - Ivan303 17:34:24 04/15/15 (0)
- RE: LKJ Setright said that "The Dream of Gerontius" could make ANYONE a Christian for 90 minutes - PAR 16:58:49 04/15/15 (1)
- Yes, I first became aware of him as an auto journalist - John Marks 18:15:07 04/15/15 (0)
- Tolstoy was arguably the single greatest inspiration for Gandhi - John Marks 17:23:32 04/14/15 (0)