Artist description The best sacred music ensemble of Russia

Music Style Classical/Sacred music/Choir vocals/Russian Orthodox music

Musical Influences Sacred music

Similar Artists The Hilliard Ensemble, Mussorgsky, Bortnyansky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bach, Vivaldi, Chesnokov, Kastalsky, Grechaninov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Arkhangelsky

Artist History The Blagovest Ensemble was established in 1987, with initial core of the group formed from an existing church choir. The Ensemble quickly gained recognition both in this country and abroad due to the uniqueness of its repertoire and the quality of its performances. The singers owe their success to a high standard professionalism and an excellence of liturgical practice. Galina Koltsova, the founder and precentor of the Ensemble, graduated from the Gnessin Institute of Music where she studied choral conducting. For twenty years now she has studied the foundations of Russian Orthodox liturgical practice and the extensive repertoire of the most important clerical schools of the composers of the 19th and 20th centuries via the Synodal Choir ("Moscow School") and the Court Choir ("St. Petersburg School"). She has also managed to combine her activities as the precentor of the St.Nicolos-Archangel church choir with her academic work with the Moscow Boys Choir. The Blagovest Ensemble's repertoire consists mainly of the works of Moscow sacred music composers of the 19th and 20th centuries ( A.Kastalsky, P.Chesnokov, A.Grechaninov, Vic.Kalinnikov, A.Nikolsky, N.Cherepnin, and S.Rachmaninoff), as well as a complete rendering of liturgical and night-service cycles and interpretations of the tunes of the 11-16th centuries. The Ensemble has taken part in several important music events such as five International Sacred Music Festivals in Moscow as well as festivals in Minsk, Kharkov, Sverdlovsk, Tallinn, Odessa, Vladimir, Wroclaw (Poland) and Lahti (Finland). Additionally, the Ensemble was enthusiastically received in the concert halls of Vienna, Munich and other cities in Finland, Poland and Greece. Compact disks have been recorded by the Blagovest Ensemble on various international labels including Vist (Russian-American), Lad (Russian-English), Russian Season (Russian-French), and Phillips (Holland). D.Khvorostovsky took part in this latter recording. In 1995, Blagovest recorded with "Cantica" (Germany) two compact disks of complete sacred works of N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov which was a world's premiere. Besides Russian Orthodox music the Ensemble performs ecumenical works of the American expatriate Russian composer Grechaninov: Catholic masses ( "Et In Terra Pax", "Missa Festiva" ) and a capella motets in Latin; and sacred Orthodox arias based on old Slavonic psalms accompanied by organ and chamber ensemble. The Ensemble repertoire contains N.Cherepin's apocriphic cantata "The Piligrimage of the Blessed Virgin Among Tormented Sinners" (Paris, 1943) which is performed jointly with the Bolshoi Theatre soloists. Among the most impressive recent performances of the Ensemble was the 16th century religious mystery "The Blazing Furnace" , based on the Biblical story from The Book of Daniel and arranged by A.Kastalsky. This work had not been staged since 1911 although it was used as the basis for a performance at the Gogol Theatre. As well as Russian Orthodox sacred music the Ensemble is dedicated to Western sacred music, which is rarely played in Russia: Vivaldi - Introduction and Gloria and Gloria in D Cherubini - Requiem Schutz - Sacred concerts Monteverdi - Magnificat, etc. In 1993 the Gluck's opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" was performed at the Hermitage Theatre (St.Petersburg) with Erik Salim-Meruert (Kurmangaliev) (male alto) as Orfeo. The Ensemble is constantly extending the range of its activity. In 1989 for the first time it took part in the festive mass in the main cathedral at Salzburg, playing Russian sacred music during the Archbishop's Service on St.Rupert's Day (St.Rupert is the patron saint of Salzburg). During the ten years of its existence, the Ensemble has been engaged in various philanthropical works, performing at schools, hospitals and old people's homes for charity purposes. The Ensemble is planning to study, perform and record previously unknown works by a number of Russian composers, a heritage which has been maintained through the country's museums and monasteries. Another goal is to search out, play and record the works of Russian composers who lived outside the country - N.Cherepnin, A.Grechaninov, I.Stravinsky, A.Chesnokov, whose creative work will further enrich the treasury of Russia choral artworks. Blagovest took part in recording on compact disk the European conference on Sacred music and Christian Culture which was held in the Vatican in May of 1993.

Instruments Choir vocals

Location Moscow - Russia

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).