Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks from Russia

Anonymous (Composer), Sergey Rachmaninov (Composer), Dimitry Bortnyansky (Composer), Nikolai Sr Kedrov (Composer), Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Composer), Dobri Hristov (Composer), Alexander Grechaninov (Composer), Grigor F. Lvovsky (Composer), Recorded Sound (Composer), Bulgarian Chant (Composer), Russian Orthodox Chant (Composer), Georgi Robev (Conductor), Valery Polyansky (Conductor), Nikolai Matveyev (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Georgi Robev, Valery Polyansky, Nikolai Matveyev
• Composer: Anonymous, Sergey Rachmaninov, Dimitry Bortnyansky, Nikolai Sr Kedrov, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, et al.
• Audio CD (February 17, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hearts of Space
• ASIN: B000000X8J
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,606 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Russia
  • #2 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia
  • #2 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Hymns

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

Although this collection intends to transport the soul, it has a tremendously potent low-end depth to it that earns high marks indeed in the worlds of vocal and liturgical music. Dmitri Bortniansky's "Hymn of the Cherubim" is performed with a gracefulness that gets a warming fatness from the production, as does Alexander Gretchaninov's "I Have Chosen the Blissful," which travels with a ringing resonance. In a year of fine choral works--check out Sequentia's Hildegard cycle box, 900 Years or Arvo Pärt's Kanon Pokajanen for a "something old, something new" mix--this collection is highly valued for its sonic integrity and its excellent anthological mix. --Andrew Bartlett

Amazon.com

Words cannot describe poignantly enough the exquisite, angelic voices that permeate the heart and exalt the soul on Sacred Treasures. The most highly regarded Russian and Bulgarian choirs sing the hymns of Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Lvovski, and other composers in the Russian Orthodox Church's tradition of "Divine Worship" (worship through chant). From the first tolling bells that open the CD with a willowy, floating piece from Rachmaninov's Liturgy of St. John, to the final bells closing the door on "Hymn of the Cherubim" (Grigory Lvovski), this CD creates a gentle, distinctly Byzantine glory. The rhythms slowly wisp along while the choirs' baritones, tenors, and sopranos mesh into one expansive blessing. Meant to comprehensively gather not all Russian liturgical pieces but rather hymns that emote an inner tranquility and celestial grace, Sacred Treasures plays like a piece of heaven on Earth. --Karen Karleski

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compare These 3, April 18, 2004

By 

John D. Dooley "PhiloX" (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks from Russia (Audio CD)

There are 3 different CD's about Russian Choir "A Cappella" music which can be discussed & reveal a certain enjoyment to different people with different needs or means:

"Ikon" sung by the Holst Singers on Hyperion is the middle ground that gives a well balance & beautiful music from an English choir group. If you did not know they were English, you would think of them as Russian. Most songs are Russian classics from Sviridov, Gretchaninov, Kalinnikov, & Tchaikovsky with modern versions from Part, Gorecki, & Nystedt. The highlight is from the female sopranos which give an angelic & awl inspiring spiritual uplift that must not be missed.

"Sacred Treasures" sung by several groups including The Russian State Symphony Cappelle, The Leningrad State Academic Choir, The Bulgarian National Choir, & a few other groups on Hearts of Space give the most authentic Russian that to English ears may sound slow & uneventful. Yet to a person that knows Russian, this CD will cause the most goose bumps due to its rightful intensity with music from Rachmaninov, Bortniansky, Kedrov, Gertchaninov, Tchaikovsky, Christov, Turchaninov, & Lvovski.

"Ancient Echoes" sung by the Chorovaya Akademia on RCA Victor may give the best first impression due to its well made production that will give a serious work out to any professional stereo system, yet with further study will reveal an over dramatized style that may get in the way. Songs from the composers Sheretiev, Nikolsky, Golovanov, Strokin, Bortnyansky, Grechaninov, Riutol, Tchaikovsky, & Chesnokov.

If your into Russian "A Cappella" music, give these 3 CD's a try & decided for yourself.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary and rare, December 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks from Russia (Audio CD)

Back in the 80's I recorded a Hearts of Space program on NPR called "Russian Cathedral" Since then, I've kept recording it to new tape every year to save it, because I could never find it again. I was in a music store the other day and froze in my tracks when I was astonished to hear parts of this same program coming over the store speaker. It was on this CD! This is without doubt, the most powerful, the most emotionally moving and healing music that I have heard in the last 30 years. This will never happen again. Religious or not, you want it.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks from Russia, January 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Treasures: Choral Masterworks from Russia (Audio CD)

Enveloping, uplifting, soaring, angelic music that lends a sense of serene ecstasy to one's activities. This is the sound of worship in the Holy Orthodox Church. What a joy to be able to have such great choirs and such great expression of the sacred in one's own home.