Vladimir Gorbik & PaTRAM Institute Male Choir Pavel Chesnokov: Teach Me Thy Statutes Hybrid Multi-Channel & Stereo SACD

Superb Recording of Russian Choral Music!
MusicWeb International's 2018 Recording of The Year!
2019 Grammy Award Nominee:
• Best Choral Performance
• Producer of the Year: Blanton Alspaugh
Reference Recordings is pleased to announce a new series of recordings from the PaTRAM Institute (Patriarch Tikhon Russian American Institute), beginning with Teach Me Thy Statutes. The music performed on this recording of Orthodox choral music in the Slavonic language was written by famed Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944). Teach me Thy Statutes is performed by the PaTRAM Institute Male Choir, a highly professional group which is a collaboration of Russian and American singers. The male choir is considered by many to be the mainstay of traditional chant and Orthodox monasticism.
This album is the first release in a series of the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute, or PaTRAM for short. The Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov wrote the Orthodox chorales in Slavic languages. Teach My Thy Statues is sung by the male choir of the PaTRAM Institute, a professional cooperation of Russian and American singers. This recording was made in an Orthodox church in Saratov, Russia, under conductor Vladimir Gorbik. The maestro, who trained at the Moscow Conservatory, combines musical skill with an excellent diction that is rarely found outside Russia, but which is the epitome of traditional singing culture of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The hybrid multi-channel SACD with HDCD encoding appears in the Fresh! by Reference Recordings and was recorded and mastered by the Soundmirror team in July 2016.
PaTRAM Institute Singers and Reference Recordings are planning several more CD releases over the next 5 years with Dr. Peter Jermihov as artistic director and conductor. Alexis Lukianov, Founder, Chairman and CEO of PaTRAM Institute states: "I am very pleased that PaTRAM Institute Singers has partnered with one of the top labels in the classical music industry. We are excited about our newest prospects and opportunities to produce and distribute world-class orthodox liturgical music."
Teach Me Thy Statutes was recorded in Russia in July of 2016 in the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian Orthodox Church, at the Saratov Orthodox Theological Seminary. PaTRAM's objective was to immerse the listener in the beautiful Russian monastic style of singing through its fullness and richness of sonority. Highly-esteemed conductor Maestro Vladimir Gorbik, whose pedigree is from the Moscow Conservatory and as choirmaster of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra Representation Choir (monastery), skillfully unites strong musicianship with superb diction to a degree that is seldom heard outside of Russia, but which epitomizes the best traditional culture of singing in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Teach Me Thy Statutes was recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received more than 90 Grammy® nominations and awards. For over 40 years, Soundmirror has recorded for every major classical record label, including Reference Recordings.
"Pavel Chesnokov's genius is superbly collected and recorded in the best way available. I congratulate those involved, and look forward to the next in this proposed sequence. And it is interesting to note the blessing given the cast by His Eminence, Metropolitan Longin of Saratov and Volsk, in July of 2016 in the Church of Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian at the Saratov Orthodox Theological Seminary. Buy it!" - John Miller, HRAudio.net, 5/5 for Performance and Sonics
"You will really be blown away by the power and profundity of this impressive disc recorded in churches at the Saratov Orthodox Theological Seminary in Russia." - Patrick Neas, Kansas City Star
"No matter how many recordings of Russian Orthodox choral music you have, this one should be on top of your pile." - Adrian Quanjer, HR Audio
"At over nine minutes, the longest single item on the disc is 'The Great Doxology' from the All-Night Vigil of 1912. Gorbik describes this as 'a true masterpiece of 20th-century Russian sacred music', and this is a sweeping and, at times, expansive performance. Mostly written in six parts and firmly rooted in G major, we experience Chesnokov's conservative style, primarily chordal with small outbursts of polyphony, and unexpected moments of harmonic richness. It reveals both Chesnokov and this large male choir at their very finest." - Marc Rochester, Gramophone
"Intensely beautiful singing and sound; quite simply, choral albums don’t come much better than this." - Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International
"Quite simply a stunner!" - John Quinn, MusicWeb International
"In this twelve month period (2018), we published more than 2400 reviews. There is no easy or entirely satisfactory way of choosing one above all others as our Recording of the Year, but this year the choice was a little easier than usual. "none stood as deserving of this accolade as much as the choral works of Pavel Chesnokov. All three reviewers who wrote about this recording nominated it as a Recording of the Month, unheard of in my memory on MWI" - MusicWeb International
"Nothing sounds routine - not the music and certainly not the singing. We are in PaTRAM's debt for their loving attention to Chesnokov's musical prayers, and to the booklet that helps bring us inside them." - American Record Guide
"As you would expect from this label, the recorded sound is exemplary, capturing the resonance of the church in Russia in which the recording was made while at the same time never slipping into muddiness... for anyone who enjoys great choral singing this can be recommended with enthusiasm. I am on my fourth listening and find more to love each time." - Henry Fogel, Fanfare
"This release is a must-have for anyone interested in Russian church music or a capella choral music in general, and I think anyone who hears it would instantly develop such an interest." - Daniel Morrison, Fanfare

Features:

• Super Audio CD
• SACD 5.0 SACD Layer
• SACD Stereo SACD Layer
• This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
• Recorded in High Resolution DSD
• Recorded and mastered by Soundmirror

Musicians:

• PaTRAM Institute Male Choir
• Vladimir Gorbik, conductor

Selections:

Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944)
Teach Me Thy Statutes
1. Bless The Lord, O My Soul
2. Blessed Is The Man
3. Gladsome Light
4. Lord, Now Lettest Thou
5. Praise The Name Of The Lord
6. Blessed Art Thou, O Lord
7. Having Beheld The Resurrection Of Christ
8. Jesus Has Risen From The Tomb
9. The Great Doxology
10. Bless The Lord, O My Soul
11. Glory… Only Begotten Son
12. Cherubic Hymn
13. A Mercy Of Peace And We Hymn Thee
14. It Is Truly Fitting
15. Salvation Is Created