An Introduction

The polyphonic choral concert, performed a cappella, first appeared in Russian music at the beginning of the 18th century. Originally it was sacred, beginning as a multi-voiced setting of liturgical texts. Although it later acquired a more secular character, it retained a sublime quality thanks to the use of Christian imagery. Most composers of this genre were choir directors and conductors and based themselves on the traditions of Russia's oldest professional choirs: the Synodal Choir of Moscow and the Imperial Chapel of St. Petersburg. The golden age of the Russian choral concert began with the works of Dmitry Bortnyansky and Stepan Degtyarev during the reign of Catherine the Great. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the genre took a new turn thanks to the efforts of Pavel Chesnokov, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Arkhangelsky. The composers of the later 20th century had more freedom in their choice of poetic texts and the form of the genre: they could address secular themes, as Georgi Sviridov did in Pushkin's Garland, or follow the spiritual and philosophical path of the genre, as in Valery Gavrilin's Bell-Ringing.