RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Maximilian STEINBERG (1883-1946)
Passion Week, Op 13 (1923) [47:04]
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Chant Arrangements for Holy Week [14:43]
Cappella Romana/Alexander Lingas
rec. 2014, St Stephen Catholic Church, Portland, Oregon
Russian texts (Cyrillic and transliterated) and English translations included
CAPPELLA ROMANA CR414-CD [61:57]
Quite often my pre-Easter listening is dominated by settings
of the Passion Gospel, usually by Bach, and when a new recording of the St
Matthew Passion arrived for review I expected that 2015 would follow
the same pattern. However, the almost simultaneous arrival of this new disc
by Cappella Romana prompted a change of routine and priorities, not least
because it contained music that was completely new to me.
I have to admit that my knowledge of the music of Maximilian Steinberg is
rather limited; the only music of his that I have encountered is his Second
Symphony Op 8 (1909) and the Variations for Orchestra, Op 2 (1905), which
Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra recorded for DG back in
1998 (review).
Passion Week will probably be unfamiliar to most collectors so I
think it’s appropriate to supply some background and here I’m
indebted to the comprehensive booklet essay by Alexander Lingas.
Steinberg was a Lithuanian, born into a Jewish family who lived in Vilnius.
He pursued his education in St Petersburg where he studied simultaneously
in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University and also at the Conservatoire.
Among his teachers at the Conservatoire was Rimsky-Korsakov, whose daughter
Steinberg married in 1908. Steinberg remained in Russia after the Revolution,
occupying various senior posts in the Conservatory in St Petersburg, later
Leningrad. Lingas mentions that Steinberg’s marriage was in the Orthodox
Church to which he converted.
It would appear from the notes that Steinberg did not compose any liturgical
music before Passion Week. By the time he came to write this work
the Stalin regime had begun to make life extremely difficult for the Orthodox
Church. By the time that it was completed an almost-complete ban on the performance
of Orthodox music had come into force in the Soviet Union. Life became even
harder for the Orthodox Church thereafter and there was no chance of a performance
of Passion Week. Indeed, it seems Steinberg very wisely kept his
head down as far as liturgical music was concerned. All was not entirely lost,
however. In the 1920s Steinberg had been allowed to make some trips outside
the Soviet Union and as a result of these visits some of his music was published
by a Parisian publishing house. In 1927 that firm published Passion Week
with the texts in Church Slavonic, Latin and English. A copy of this score,
which is now a very rare edition, came into the possession of the Russian-American
conductor Igor Buketoff (1915-2001), to whose memory this recording is dedicated.
At Buketoff’s prompting his niece, Tamara Skvir and her husband, Very
Rev. Daniel Skvir brought the music to the attention of Alexander Lingas.
He edited the score and conducted Cappella Romana in what is thought to have
been the first performance of the work in April 2014. Thus, some ninety years
after it was written was Passion Week first heard and the same artists
have now made its first recording.
Passion Week consists of eleven separate movements for unaccompanied
choir. These are settings of hymns from the Orthodox services of Holy Week;
these are sung in Church Slavonic. The first three hymns are from the “Bridegroom”
Orthros of Great Monday to Great Wednesday. In these, as the title suggests,
much is made of the image of Christ as a bridegroom. There follow three pieces
from two different liturgies of Great Thursday, two Great Friday hymns and,
to conclude, three hymns from Great Saturday liturgies, the last two of which
are from the Vespers for that day, which is the Easter Vigil. The texts to
all of these hymns are full of very powerful, prayerful imagery and Steinberg
responds to the words magnificently in music that seems to me to be fully
respectful of the Russian Orthodox musical tradition but which also develops
that tradition.
It’s worth mentioning at this point, I think, the Passion Week
by Alexander Grechaninov which was written in 1912 and to which Alexander
Lingas says Steinberg’s work is ‘indebted for its form’.
The two composers set several of the same texts but the musical response is
rather different. I know the Grechaninov work through the magnificent recording
conducted by Charles Bruffy (review)
and the impression I have is that Grechaninov’s music, though deeply
expressive and very beautiful, is more conservative harmonically than Steinberg’s
and that Steinberg’s writing is also more polyphonically complex. I’m
not for one moment suggesting that one work is “better” than the
other – that would be as crass a statement as it would be unfair –
but it’s interesting to compare two differing responses within the Orthodox
tradition. Most of Steinberg’s settings are based on traditional Znamenny
chants but there is also one piece based on a Kievan chant while another is
founded on a Bulgarian chant. The eighth piece, ‘The Wise Thief’,
is an original composition.
Often when a review disc arrives thorough the post I’m unable to resist
playing just a few minutes of it to get an initial impression, especially
if the music is new to me. I did this with this disc but found that I was
hooked and I listened straight through the Steinberg work. I was struck forcefully
by the sheer beauty of the music – and by the excellence of the performance.
So, for example, the very first piece contains verses, sonorously sung by
a bass singer, as the Celebrant. These verses are interspersed with choral
‘Alleluias’ in varied and luxuriant scorings. This is followed
by ‘Behold, the Bridegroom comes’ in which the chant is richly
harmonised. Already, in these first two numbers, Steinberg evidences great
assurance in both his vocal writing and also his understanding of and empathy
with the Orthodox idiom.
I love the gentle music at the start of the third movement, ‘Your bridal
chamber’. Here the textures are luminous and very delicate while the
harmonies are beautiful. ‘When the glorious disciples’, which
comes next, is initially more forthright as befits a text that treats of the
betrayal by Judas but the music becomes prayerful at the end. The seventh
movement, ‘The noble Joseph’, tells of Joseph of Arimathea taking
the body of Christ down from the cross. Naturally, the music is sorrowful,
yet the sorrow is dignified in this intense and devotional setting. The ninth
movement, ‘Do not weep for Me, Mother’ includes a fervent tenor
solo in the opening pages. This is followed by a more extended piece, ‘Arise,
O God’, which has a strong refrain proclaiming the power of the Resurrection.
The intervening verses are all ecstatic yet in different ways. Finally comes
an extended setting of the Paschal Vigil hymn, ‘Let all mortal flesh
keep silence’. This, I think, contains the finest music of all. The
piece is prayerful and moving and the sonorous ‘Alleluias’ at
the end bring the piece and the cycle to a magnificent conclusion.
Passion Week is a remarkable work that contains intensely beautiful
music and I was gripped and moved by it. The performance is superb. Cappella
Romana is a specialist professional choir, based in the Pacific Northwest
of the USA and they bring great expertise to this music. The choir numbers
26 on this recording (6/6/6/8). Their tone has a really satisfying depth to
it and when required they are capable of delivering powerful, sonorous climaxes
yet they are just as adept in producing singing of great delicacy and finesse.
The score includes a number of solos and these are all taken expertly by members
of the choir. It is readily apparent that Alexander Lingas, who is deeply
immersed in this musical genre, has trained them with great thoroughness and
in conducting them he draws out performances of no little feeling and natural
authority.
To complete the programme Lingas and his choir perform five Chants by Steinberg’s
teacher and father-in-law, Rimsky-Korsakov. All five texts were also set by
Steinberg in Passion Week. The Rimsky settings are taken from two
collections of his published chant settings, one dating from 1886 and the
other a posthumous collection published in 1914. These are much simpler settings
than Steinberg’s and heard side by side I concluded that the Steinberg
pieces are more original in their ideas and more adventurous in their harmonic
language. That said, the Rimsky pieces are direct in expression and they strike
me as effective and devotional. I particularly admired Rimsky’s beautiful
and eloquent setting of ‘Your bridal chamber’. These pieces make
a good appendix to the Steinberg work.
It’s Steinberg’s Passion Week, though, that has the greatest
claim on the attention of collectors. I’d go so far as to say that it’s
a major discovery. Anyone who responds to a work such as Rachmaninov’s
All-Night Vigil will find this a very rewarding piece. I don’t
think that Steinberg’s piece is as memorable in its melodic material
as Rachmaninov’s masterpiece but that may well be because I’m
much more familiar with the Rachmaninov. I have no hesitation in saying, however,
that Passion Week is one of the finest and most moving Orthodox settings
that I’ve encountered and I’ve been excited by getting to know
it. It’s particularly pleasing that this music should receive its first
recording from such a fine choir: Cappella Romana have done Steinberg proud.
Every aspect of the presentation of this release is first rate. The recording
is excellent. The acoustic of St Stephen Catholic Church is warm and sympathetic
and the engineers have conveyed the right amount of natural resonance without
letting the sound of the choir become diffuse in any way. The singers are
nicely balanced and lots of detail registers. There’s a fine dynamic
range and the climaxes open up in a very satisfying way. The booklet is excellent,
not least for the absorbing essay about the music by Alexander Lingas.
More information about Cappella Romana and their previous recordings is available
on their website.
John
Quinn
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