Sacred Treasures III: Choral Masterworks from Russia

This Awesome recording along with the first Saced Treasures of Bortniansky, Chernikof, Gretchaninov, Rachminanov, Tchaikovsky, this more recent Sacred Treasures III, includes far more!!!

Receiving yesterday's Parcel Post, I stayed awake until nearly 1:00AM, listening to 14 spiritually refreshing, glorious, and gorgeous Russian Choral Chants. My top ones are still singing in my aura..."Lord Have Mercy, KOMM SUSSER TOD, Peaceful Light, Grant Us This, O Lord, OUR FATHER, Praise The Lord, O My Soul, BLESSED ART THOU O LORD (Kiev Chant)." Most of these 7 are conducted by Valery Polansky in his magnificent choral style!

Even while singing under Robert Shaw in Atlanta Symphony Chorus there were seldom such chorally satisfying, experiences of awesome, enrapturing, ethereal sounds as these Russian Orthodox Choirs. The St. Petersburg Chamber Choir and USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir-Valery Polyansky Conductor, as intimately matchless! Voted a multitude of Golden Stars fondly from Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood, "Barbara377" (Fayetteville GA United States)

Another elegant presentation in the Sacred Treasures series. In Sacred Treasures III, Ellen Holmes has artfully combined some of the best recordings of Russian choral music from the orthodox liturgy (many by Rachmaninov) with uniquely beautiful arrangements such as Gunnar Eriksson's arrangement of Bach's "Komm Susser Tod" and less familiar pieces like the wordless "Chorale" by Georgian composer Josif Kechakmadze, which I found to be engaging. The inspired beauty of this music reaches into the soul and instills a sense of peace, as only music can.

This is a very beautiful choral CD. Track 2, "Sourp, Sourp" which is from the Armenian Orthodox Divine Liturgy, is one of my favorite songs, and this is a stunning version of it.

If you like choral music or early music or even new age music, this is a great CD for you.

This CD reminds me once again why Russian liturgical music is one of the treasures of the world: beautiful, profound, awe-inspiring, uplifting.

For the most part, the pieces are well chosen and the performances excellent. I am delighted to see that many of the tracks are from the classic recording of the Rachmaninoff Vespers made in the early 1970s by the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir directed by Valery Polyansky, and released in the USA by Angel-Melodiya. I wore out my copy of the LP years ago; although it has been reissued on CD, it's out of print and very hard to find. So it is wonderful to see a generous selection from that recording available on this disk.

Listen to track 11, "Praise the Lord O My Soul", sung by the chamber choir and mezzo Irina Arkhipova. You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved as she sings "Slava Ghospidin" (Praise to the Lord). And listen to how the basses descend to B-flat at end. It just doesn't get any better than this.

I'd like to remind potential buyers that about a third of the chants on this cd are from Rachmaninoff's Vespers and Divine Liturgy. If you already have those cds, maybe you should think twice before buying Sacred Treasures III, which is definitely inferior to Sacred Treasures I, although still very beautiful (especially the first and second tracks).