Russian Choral Concertos: An Introduction Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir & Andrei Petrenko

• Stepan Degtyarev (1766 - 1813): Today Christ is born in Bethlehem:
• 1 Degtyarev: Today Christ is born in Bethlehem 05:16
• Dmitry Bortnyansky (1751 - 1825): Sacred Concerto No. 34, May God Arise:
• 2 Bortnyansky: Sacred Concerto No. 34, May God Arise 05:13
• Alexander Arkhangelsky (1846 - 1924): I think of Judgement Day:
• 3 Arkhangelsky: I think of Judgement Day 07:53
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): O Mother of God:
• 4 Rachmaninoff: O Mother of God 05:46
• Pavel Chesnokov (1877 - 1944): Angel Cried Out:
• 5 Chesnokov: Angel Cried Out 03:21
• Blessed Is the Man:
• 6 Chesnokov: Blessed Is the Man 04:23
• God Is with Us:
• 7 Chesnokov: God Is with Us 02:23
• Valery Gavrilin (1939 - 19999): White, White Snow…:
• 8 Gavrilin: Chimes: White, White Snow… 10:04
• Georgy Sviridov (1915 -1998): Pushkin's Garland:
• 9 Sviridov: Pushkin's Garland: Magpie Chatter 03:10
• 10 Sviridov: Pushkin's Garland: Reveille 05:12
• Total Runtime 52:41

Info for Russian Choral Concertos: An Introduction

The polyphonic choral concerto performed a cappella first appeared in Russian music at the beginning of the 18th century. Sacred in origin, it began as a multimovement setting of liturgical texts. Although it later became more secular in character, it nonetheless retained an elevated nature thanks to its use of Christian imagery. Most of the composers who worked in this genre were choirmasters and conductors, and inherited the traditions of the oldest professional choirs in Russia: the Moscow Synodal Choir and the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel.

The Golden Age of the Russian choral concerto came with the works of Dmitry Bortnyansky and Stepan Degtyarev during the reign of Catherine the Great. The genre took a new turn at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, thanks to the efforts of Pavel Chesnokov, Sergei Rachmaninov and Alexander Arkhangelsky. Composers during the later 20th century had greater freedom to choose their poetic texts and to modify the form of the genre: they could make use of secular themes, as did Georgy Sviridov in Pushkin’s Garland , or follow the spiritual and philosophical path of the genre, as we see in Valery Gavrilin’s Chimes .

Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir
Andrei Petrenko, conductor

Andrei Petrenko
graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, specialising in choral, opera and symphony conducting. Andrei Petrenko’s performing career began in 1981 as a production conductor at the Leningrad State Musical Comedy Theatre; he subsequently became the Director of the Smolny Cathedral Chorus and was a guest conductor of the Congress Orchestra of St Petersburg. From 1989 to 2000 he taught choral and symphony conducting at the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire, in addition to holding international master-classes with foreign students. Andrei Petrenko has toured to more than twenty countries with various choruses, ballet companies and symphony orchestras of St Petersburg. He has staged productions of operas in Finland (Gounod’s Faust in Pori) and in Estonia (Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Tallinn).

Since 2000 to 2020, Andrei Petrenko has been the Mariinsky Theatre’s Principal Chorus Master. Among the most outstanding productions in which he has been involved in recent years are operas such as Les Troyens, Benvenuto Cellini, Attila, Un ballo in maschera, The Nose, War and Peace, Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, The Love for Three Oranges, A Life for the Tsar, The Golden Cockerel, Christmas Eve, La Bohème, Parsifal, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Götterdämmerung, Der Fliegende Holländer, Jenůfa, The Gambler, Nabucco, Otello, The Enchantress, Turandot, The Brothers Karamazov, Dead Souls, Tristan und Isolde, The Mystery of the Apostle Paul, The Lefthander and A Christmas Tale among others.

At the Mariinsky Theatre he has conducted the operas Aida, La traviata, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale (in concert), Samson et Dalila, Król Roger, Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, The Snow Maiden, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Enchanted Wanderer, Sorochintsy Fair and War and Peace as well as the ballet Les Noces and a staged version of Verdi’s Requiem and cantata and oratorio works by Mozart, Berlioz, Gavrilin, Rachmaninoff, Kastalsky and Prokofiev. He has prepared numerous concert programmes featuring Mariinsky Opera soloists and the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra. Andrei Petrenko conducted the world premiere of Vladimir Martynov’s Vita Nuova at the Moscow House of Music during the IV Moscow Easter Festival.

Moreover, Andrei Petrenko’s repertoire includes Bach’s Johannes-Passion and Matthäus-Passion, Handel’s oratorio The Messiah, Mozart and Berlioz’ Requiems, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Oedipus Rex, Gavrilin’s Chimes, Sibelius’ symphonic poem Kullervo, Rachmaninoff’s cantatas Spring and The Bells, Sviridov’s Kursk Songs, Kokkonen’s Requiem and numerous programmes of symphony music.

Under the baton of Andrei Petrenko, the Mariinsky Chorus has performed a cappella programmes at prestigious concert venues throughout Russia and in Lithuania, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain and Israel.

Since 2008 Andrei Petrenko has been a guest conductor of the Choeur de Radio France. Since 2014 he has been Artistic Director of the Symphony Chorus of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic.

Andrei Petrenko has received a written deed from President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin for his great contribution to the preparations for the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

Andrei Petrenko’s repertoire as an opera conductor also includes Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Haydn’s Lo speziale, Schubert’s Die Zwillingsbrüder and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko, in addition to the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, Chopiniana, Carmen-Suite, Karen Khachaturian’s The Adventures of Cipollino, Igor Rogalev’s Peter Pan and the operettas Die Fledermaus, Die Lustige Witwe, Die Czardasfürstin, Das Veilchen vom Montmartre, La Belle Hélène and Die Gräfin Mariza.

Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir
Founded in 2008. Performs about 50 concerts annually, in Russia and abroad. Consists of 60 professional singers.

The Choir’s repertoire includes Magnificats by J.S.Bach and C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Britten’s Spring Symphony, requiems by Mozart, Verdi, Fauré, Berlioz, Schnittke and Sylvestrov, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Missa Sancti Spiritus and Passion Week by Grechaninov, Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 13 and The Execution of Stepan Razin, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Shchedrin’s Byurokratiada, Victorova’s Exodus, cantatas by Taneyev and Prokofiev, works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Sviridov, and Gavrilin, Russian romance and ethnic songs.

Led by Andrei Petrenko, the Choir performed across Russia, as well as in France, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Denmark, Japan and China. It participated in the Symphonic Forum of Russia and international festivals, including Beethovenfest, La Roque d’Antheron, La Folle Journee, Via Aeterna, Moscow Easter Festival, Le Rivage des Voix, Preobrazhenie, Eurasia International Music Festival, Bach-Fest and Be@thoven Festival Yekaterinburg. Along with the regular domestic broadcasts, the Choir’s international performances were broadcast by ARTE, WDR and DW.

The Choir enjoyed collaboration with conductors – Dmitry Kitayenko, Krzysztof Penderecki, Valery Gergiev, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Dmitry Liss, Alexander Vedernikov, Evgeny Brazhnik, Andrey Boreyko, Enkhe; and orchestras – Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Philharmonic Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Along with its residence, Sverdlovsk Philharmonic, the Choir performed at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Cathedral of Christ-the-Savior in Moscow, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre and Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Elbphilharmonie, Wiener Konzerthaus, Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Pleyel Hall in Paris, the Beethovenhalle Bonn, La Cité des Congrès de Nantes, Harbin Philharmonic, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo Metropolian Theatre and other great venues across Eurasia.

Artistic Director – Andrei Petrenko, Honored Artist of Russia

Booklet for Russian Choral Concertos: An Introduction