CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 8:00 PM

Pre-concert talk starts at 7 PM in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with Simon Morrison, Professor of Music, Princeton University.

St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Larissa Diadkova, Mezzo-Soprano
The Dessoff Symphonic Choir
James Bagwell, Music Director
Russian Chamber Chorus of New York
Nikolai Kachanov, Artistic Director

SVIRIDOV Small Triptych
MUSSORGSKY Songs and Dances of Death
PROKOFIEV Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78

Program Notes:

By Harlow Robinson

GEORGY SVIRIDOV Small Triptych
Born April 16, 1915, in Fatezh, Kursk Province, Russia; died January 6, 1998, in Moscow.

Composed in 1964, the Small Triptych was first performed in Vienna under the direction of Michael Umlauf. It received its Carnegie Hall premiere on October 1, 1998, with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.

Although his highly accessible and lyrical music has not become as well known abroad as that of some of his Russian contemporaries, Georgi Sviridov occupied a prominent position in Soviet musical life. A favorite student of Dmitri Shostakovich at Leningrad Conservatory, and elected to succeed him as First Secretary of the Composers’ Union of the Russian Republic in 1968, Sviridov enjoyed official favor throughout his long career, receiving numerous prizes and honors. An experienced man of the theater, he served as musical director of the Leningrad Academic Theater of Drama and Comedy and wrote several musical comedies and incidental music for theatrical productions. Over the years, Sviridov tried his hand in a wide variety of genres, including symphonies, chamber music, piano concertos, musical comedy, works for solo piano, film music, oratorios, and songs. Along the way, he managed to remain largely untouched by the nasty and destructive ideological attacks launched on leading Soviet composers, including his teacher Shostakovich in 1948. Appointed secretary of the Soviet Union of Composers in 1962, he received the influential rank of People’s Artist of the USSR in 1970.

In his compositions, Sviridov—born in a farming region near Kursk—celebrates the simple virtues of Russian village life, expressing nostalgia for a purer pre-industrial rural existence, and a melancholy appreciation of nature. The extensive entry on Sviridov in the Soviet Musical Encyclopedia praises his “vivid gift for melody, harmonic freshness, simplicity of notation.” Often turning to Russian poets (Esenin, Pushkin, Blok) for inspiration, he also imitates (like his beloved Mussorgsky) various genres of Russian folk music in his works for voice and orchestra: liturgical chant, medieval cantatas, laments.

This is the case in one of his best-known orchestral pieces, the Small Triptych. Here, the orchestra is treated rather like an instrumental choir to create “poetic pictures of his native land.” Although Sviridov does not provide a specific program for the three movements, they each evoke emotional images of traditional Russian life: an archaic, contemplative mood in the opening Allegro moderato un poco rubato (almost reminiscent of pages of the monastery scene in Boris Godunov); awesome military power in the brief Con tutta la forza un poco maestoso; and a snowy troika ride in the concluding Allegro moderato, with its driving piano rhythm, festively ornamented with bells and harp.

MODEST MUSSORGSKY Songs and Dances of Death
Born March 21, 1839, in Karevo, Pskov district, Russia; died March 28, 1881, in St. Petersburg.

Composed between 1875 and 1877, and orchestrated by Shostakovich in 1962, Songs and Dances of Death was first performed in its orchestrated version on November 12, 1962, in Gorky, USSR. The first Carnegie Hall performance of the orchestrated version took place on April 29, 1917, with “Serenada” performed by Frank Loubet’s Orchestra conducted by Alberto Bimboni, and Vladimir Resnikoff, baritone.
Scoring: solo voice, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, tamburo, cymbals, tam-tam, harp, and strings.

To the genre of the art-song, Modest Mussorgsky made a large, enduring, and utterly original contribution. Nearly 70 songs came from his pen, including three cycles (The Nursery, Sunless, and Songs and Dances of Death) with few peers in psychological nuance and musical innovation. Perhaps Mussorgsky’s notoriously short attention span helps to explain why he was so successful in this realm of dramatic miniatures.

For the texts for Songs and Dances of Death, originally composed for vocal soloist and piano, Mussorgsky turned to a minor poet who was also a close friend and even roommate, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1848–1913). The two men had become acquainted around 1873, and Mussorgsky was soon praising him to his colleague and collaborator Vladimir Stasov: “Sincerity leaps from almost everything in Kutuzov, almost everywhere you scent the freshness of a fine warm morning, together with a matchless inborn technique … And how he is drawn to the people, to history!”

In the first months of 1875, partly to distract himself from the difficult chore of moving ahead with the opera Khovanshchina, Mussorgsky started work on a new cycle with Kutuzov, its subject apparently suggested by Stasov: a series of confrontations between individuals and death. Stasov had proposed seven different scenes, although in the end, Mussorgsky chose to include only four: “Kolybel’naya” (“Lullaby”), “Serenada” (“Serenade”), “Trepak,” and “Polkovodets” (“Commander in Chief”). The first three were composed in 1875, and the fourth in 1877.

Mussorgsky’s image of death is of a powerful, irresistible force that can cajole, seduce, and conquer any victim, no matter what age or station in life. The cycle emerged from the composer’s own obsession with dying (remember the terrifying and utterly “realistic” death scene of Tsar Boris in Boris Godunov), and seems to prefigure his own premature and miserable exit from life only six years after its completion. In “Lullaby,” death engages in a triumphant dialogue with an anguished mother tending to a sick baby. “Serenade” imagines death arriving as a handsome knight to carry off a young woman seized by delirium and fever. Mussorgsky’s unfortunately keen understanding of the workings of drunkenness informs “Trepak,” a mini-drama in which death partners an inebriated peasant in a wild final dance through a raging blizzard. In “Commander in Chief,” death surveys the carnage of a battlefield with imperious authority, summoning the dead to assemble and march to his dark kingdom: “Arise like comrades for inspection, corpses!”

As in all of Mussorgsky’s songs, the four in Songs and Dances of Death impress by their fidelity to the text, and their avoidance of the clichés of the art-song as practiced by the composer’s contemporaries. What we feel is an immediacy of experience (in this case, a harrowing one), not a comfortable recollection of experience. In “Lullaby,” Mussorgsky plays with the comforting Russian nonsense syllables conventionally associated with the lullaby—“bayushki-bayu-bayu”—to devastating effect, giving them to victorious death rather than to the powerless mother. “Serenade” uses lyrical melody more extensively than the other three songs, conveying the idea of a young woman’s yearning for romance even as she lies dying. “Trepak” draws the most heavily on Russian folk traditions; a trepak is a Cossack dance in fast duple meter (Tchaikovsky inserts one to very different effect in The Nutcracker.). Here, Mussorgsky mixes it with quotations from the Dies irae of the requiem mass and concludes with a remarkable musical illustration of the summer warmth that the drunkard (already drifting into oblivion) mistakenly imagines has come in the midst of the swirling snow. “The Commander in Chief” moves from the small scale of the first three songs to an epic of war, ringing with military bluster, and spins variations on a Polish hymn “Z dymen pozarow.” Nor do the Commander’s final words leave much hope about a life hereafter: “I’ll stomp on the damp earth so that your bones can never abandon the canopy of the grave, so that you’ll never rise from the earth!”

In early 1961, Dmitri Shostakovich, who had always admired Mussorgsky, decided to orchestrate the cycle after hearing his friend Galina Vishnevskaya (accompanied by her husband, Mstislav Rostropovich) sing it in an acclaimed Moscow recital. In his orchestration, Shostakovich strove to retain as much as possible the spirit of the Mussorgsky original. The basic harmonic and rhythmic structure remains unaltered. Although the orchestral ensemble is relatively large, it is used very sparingly, so as not to cover the voice part. The atmosphere of intimacy is retained. In the first three songs, the harp figures prominently, perhaps reflecting the idea of a heavenly, or at least unearthly, voice. In “The Commander in Chief,” the brass choir and percussion come forward to provide literal illustration for the ordered march.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78
Born April 23, 1891, in Sontsovka, Bakhmutsk region, Yekaterinoslav district, Ukraine; died March 5, 1953, in Moscow.

Composed in 1839, Alexander Nevsky was first performed on May 17, 1939, in Moscow. It received its Carnegie Hall premiere on April 3, 1945, with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, the Westminster Choir, and Rosalind Nadell, contralto.

Scoring: solo mezzo-soprano, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in C, bass clarinet, saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in C, 3 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tamburo, tamburino, maracas, legno, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, chimes, xylophone, campana, harp, strings, and mixed chorus.

Sergei Prokofiev and Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948) collaborated for the first time on the film Alexander Nevsky, an epic on the life of the legendary military leader and Prince of Novgorod (1220–63). The subject of a medieval hagiographic biography, Nevsky had achieved heroic stature in Russian history as a fair, god-fearing, and brave statesman, and as leader of the Russian forces in their victory over the invading Catholic Teutonic Knights. Celebrated in songs, poems, and numerous monuments as one of the greatest of all Russian patriots, Nevsky was also—not coincidentally—one of the favorite heroes of the supreme leader of the USSR, dictator Josef Stalin. Indeed, Eisenstein’s film encouraged audiences to draw a parallel between the heroic Nevsky and Stalin, who always thought of himself as the latest and most glorious in the long line of strong leaders of Russian history.

What allowed Eisenstein and Prokofiev to work so successfully together was their similar understanding of the active (not just accompanying) role than music could play in film. (By now, Prokofiev had written several successful film scores, including one for the Soviet silent film Lt. Kijé.) Eisenstein believed that the rhythm and emotional impact of the music should often work in counterpoint with the rhythm and emotional impact of the visual image, depending on the desired effect. He encouraged Prokofiev to avoid obvious and literal sound-image connections.

In his score, which has 21 separate “numbers,” Prokofiev avoided direct citation of music of the era of the action. Instead, he rewrote this music as it would sound in 20th-century musical language, to rethink it in contemporary terms. “Original musical material of the 13th century has become so alien to us in an emotional sense that it cannot supply sufficient food for the spectator’s imagination,” Prokofiev observed. Accordingly, Prokofiev “reimagines” both the Catholic chants of the Teutonic Knights and the folk songs of the Novgorodian warriors. In the recording of the score for the film, Prokofiev also made extensive use of the possibilities of recording technology, playing with volume levels, microphone placement, mixing, distortion, and balance for emotional and aesthetic effect.

When the film opened officially on December 1, 1938, it was greeted with extraordinary official enthusiasm. Stalin loved it. As a result, Prokofiev’s position among Soviet composers, which had been somewhat unstable since his return from Europe to Moscow in early 1936, was greatly strengthened. In the months after the film’s premiere, Prokofiev (never one to waste good music) undertook to arrange a concert cantata from the film score. This was a challenging task, since he had to rethink the effects created by recorded sound and to find an appropriate structure that possessed its own dramatic logic. In the end, he divided the cantata into seven large sections corresponding to the broad outline of the film’s narrative. Particularly successful was his decision to place the folk-inspired lament by the mezzo-soprano soloist (“On the Field of the Dead”) in the penultimate position, before the triumphant concluding “Alexander’s Entry into Pskov.”


Copyright © 2007 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Harlow Robinson is Matthews Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University, and author of Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography and the recently published Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood’s Russians: Biography of an Image.

St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Over the last 40 years, Yuri Temirkanov has forged a fiercely individual brand of music-making, marking him as one of the most dynamic conductors on the international concert circuit. In his primary role as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra—a position he has occupied since his predecessor Yevgeny Mravinsky’s departure in 1988—Temirkanov frequently elicits performances lauded for their intelligence, precision, and wide-ranging emotional depth. In addition to his tenure in St. Petersburg, the maestro currently serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Bolshoi Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director Emeritus of the Baltimore Symphony. He has also served as Principal Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet (now known as the Mariinsky Theatre), Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, and most recently, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony. Mr. Temirkanov regularly appears with many of Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philarmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Santa Cecilia of Rome, and La Scala. He is a regular visitor to the US, where he conducts the major orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

In addition to his eagerly awaited fall tour with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, highlights of Mr. Temirkanov’s 2007–08 conducting season include Verdi’s La Traviata at Parma’s Teatro Regio, Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades and Bizet’s Carmen at the Bolshoi Opera; programs of Prokofiev and Shostakovich with the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony; the premiere of a new commission by Georgian composer Giya Kancheli with the Danish Radio Symphony; and a tour of Latin America with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in summer 2008.

Yuri Temirkanov’s extensive discography features collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, the Kirov Opera Orchestra and Chorus, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, and the Danish National Radio Symphony. He has recorded the complete Stravinsky ballets and Tchaikovsky’s symphonic cycle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as many of the major works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, and Mussorgsky with the other ensembles.

Mr. Temirkanov is the recipient of numerous distinguished citations and awards, including the State Prize of Russia (1999) and the Association of Italian Music Critics’ Abbiati Prize (2003); he has also been made an honorary member of the International Academy of Sciences, Industry, Education and Art (1998). In 2003, he was awarded the President’s Medal by Vladimir Putin and was named Conductor of the Year in Italy. He has received Grammy nominations for his recordings of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky (1996) and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (1998).

Yuri Temirkanov started his musical studies at the age of nine. After studying violin and viola as a boy, he eventually pursued viola and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory. He took first place at the prestigious All-Soviet National Conducting Competition in 1966, and was subsequently invited by conductor Kiril Kondrashin to tour Europe and the US with legendary violinist David Oistrakh and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Temirkanov debuted with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic a year later, and was invited to join the orchestra as Assistant Conductor to Yevgeny Mravinsky. He served as Principal Conductor of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1976, then as Music Director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet until 1988, when he assumed his current position as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

ST. PETERSBURG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra is Russia’s oldest symphonic ensemble, tracing its origins to a group of music-loving aristocrats who founded Europe’s first Philharmonic Society in 1802. The St. Petersburg Philharmonic we know today has earned near-legendary status as the preeminent exponent of the modern Russian symphonic tradition. With Music Director and Principal Conductor Yuri Temirkanov at its helm since 1988, the SPPO follows an ambitious schedule of worldwide touring and recording, building on the foundation laid by the Orchestra’s great former conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky.

To celebrate its notable 200th anniversary in 2002, the Orchestra performed at a star-studded Gala concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with soloists including Evgeny Kissin and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. In the earliest days of its existence, the SPPO’s energies were directed first, and exclusively, to the Russian aristocracy, and, after the revolution in 1917, to the working classes. In the first half of the 20th century, the SPPO was led by some of the greatest conductors of the time, including Glazunov, Koussevitsky, Tcherepnin, Walter, Klemperer, Kleiber, and Knappertsbusch. Beginning in 1938, when the Orchestra was known as the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky led SPPO to greatness. The maestro established and maintained an extraordinary level of musical quality and integrity, which remains the hallmark of this superb ensemble to this day. Mravinsky’s special friendship with composer Dmitri Shostakovich enabled the Orchestra to become a recognized champion and authoritative interpreter of the composer’s works. After World War II, the Orchestra’s reputation took on a global dimension: as the first Soviet ensemble to tour abroad, the Orchestra performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the US under the direction of such greats as Stokowski, Munch, Cluytens, Markevitch, Krips, Kodály, and Britten. Maestro Mravinsky also made numerous recordings with the Orchestra, which eventually obtained distribution outside the USSR.

In 1991, the city of Leningrad reclaimed its original name, and the orchestra became known as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Under the leadership of Music Director and Principal Conductor Yuri Temirkanov, the ensemble now regularly tours Europe, the US, and Japan. The SPPO is a favorite at such major summer festivals as Salzburg, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Rheingau, MDR, Lucerne, and the BBC Proms. The Orchestra’s live and recorded performances have established its worldwide reputation of unparalleled excellence.

Recordings of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic can be heard with Yuri Temirkanov conducting on Sony BMG Masterworks, with Mariss Jansons on EMI, and with Vladimir Ashkenazy on Decca.

Larissa Diadkova, Mezzo-Soprano
Mezzo-soprano Larissa Diadkova was born in Zelenodolsk, Russia, and studied singing at the Leningrad Conservatory. She then joined the Kirov Opera Company, making her debut as Valvya in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin. In addition to the Russian musical literature, Diadkova’s repertoire is colored with the works Mahler, Verdi, and Wagner, among other composers.

As a member of the Kirov Opera, Ms. Diadkova has participated in many of the group’s tours with Music Director Valery Gergiev. She was honored by an invitation from Mstislav Rostropovich to join him for his long-awaited return to the Bolshoi Opera for performances of Khovanshchina. Ms Diadkova has also appeared in many of the world’s foremost concert halls: the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Centre, and Wigmore Hall in London; the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

In Italy, Ms. Diadkova initially established herself as a major artist in the west—first with performances of Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Amneris in Aida at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; later, at La Scala as Laura in La gioconda, and Marfa in Khovanshchina conducted by Valery Gerghiev. For the centennial anniversary of Verdi’s death, she devoted most of her 2000–01 season to performing roles by the late composer. She portrayed Azucena in Il trovatore in major houses around the world, including the Vienna State Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, San Francisco Opera, Arena di Verona, and Teatro Regio di Parma. She also appeared as Mistress Quickly in the Salzburg Easter Festival’s production of Falstaff conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Since 1996, Ms. Diadkova has been a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut as Madelon in Andrea Chenier, and has since performed roles of Azucena, Amneris, Ulrica, and Fricka, as well as Hérodias (in a new production of Salome opposite Karita Mattila). Most recently, Ms. Diadkova appeared as Liubov in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa conducted by Valery Gergiev. In 2003, she debuted at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Ulrica, and later appeared there as Fricka in both Rheingold and Die Walküre, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

In 2001, she made her debut at the Paris Opera as Marfa in Khovanshchina conducted by James Conlon, and returned to Paris to sing both Azucena and Jezhibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka opposite Renée Fleming. Ms. Diadkova has also performed with some of the world’s major orchestras—including the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra—with such revered conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Temirkanov, Claudio Abbado, and Riccardo Muti.

Aside from her plethora of live performances, Ms. Diadkova has made many CD and DVD recordings. For Philips Classics, she recorded Ruslan and Lyudmilla, Mazeppa, and Betrothal in a Monastery, all conducted by Valery Gergiev. Her most recent recordings include Il trovatore with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna conducted by Antonio Pappano for EMI Classics, and Falstaff conducted by Claudio Abbado for Deutsche Grammophon.

Future engagements for Larissa Diadkova include Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; a new production of Tchaikovsky’s little-known Cherevichki at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Marfa in Khovanshchina at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; Jezhibaba in Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival; the Duenna in Betrothal in a Monastery at the Paris Opera; Verdi’s Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis; Grammy in The Gambler at The Metropolitan Opera, and La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica at the Los Angeles Opera.

The Dessoff Symphonic Choir
James Bagwell, Music Director
As Music Director of The Dessoff Symphonic Choir, James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the US as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral literature. He was appointed Dessoff’s seventh Music Director in 2005, and since then has led the choir in music ranging from 17th-century Venetian masterworks to 21st-century American premieres.

Last year, Mr. Bagwell made his major orchestra debut by leading the Jerusalem Symphony, and conducted a subscription concert with the Tulsa Symphony that March. The summer of 2007 marked his third season conducting at the Bard SummerScape Festival and his ninth season as Music Director of Light Opera Oklahoma.

As Director of Choruses for the Bard Music Festival, Mr. Bagwell conducts and prepares choral works during the summer festival at Bard College and at Alice Tully Hall in New York. Since 2004, he has prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, including a national broadcast in 2006 on Live from Lincoln Center, all at Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for a number of major American orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, in addition to the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan.

Since 1997, James Bagwell has been Music Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati. The Youth Chorus was heard in April on National Public Radio’s From the Top. Mr. Bagwell is also Artistic Director for The New York Repertory Singers and serves as conductor for the Berkshire Bach Society Choruses. In 2000, he joined the faculty of Bard College, where he is Director of the Music Program, and, in 2008, he will launch a new graduate program in choral conducting through the Bard Conservatory of Music.

THE DESSOFF SYMPHONIC CHOIR

The Dessoff Choir is one of New York City’s leading choruses. Founded in 1924 by Margarete Dessoff, it has established a reputation for pioneering performances of choral works from the pre-Baroque era through the 21st century.

Dessoff is active in New York’s musical life, presenting its own concerts under the baton of Music Director James Bagwell and collaborating with major musical ensembles. The choir’s most recent appearance at Carnegie Hall was with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. Other recent engagements have been with the Kronos Quartet, the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and with Tan Dun in his haunting Water Passion after Saint Matthew. Dessoff has also collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Philharmonia, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Philharmonia Baroque, and Opera Orchestra of New York.

The Dessoff Symphonic Choir has taken part in New York, American, and world premieres of many works, by composers such as Marshall Coid, Philip Glass, and Sir John Tavener. The group has performed frequently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival; with the Lincoln Center Festival; and at the Mostly Mozart Festival, including collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Group and an appearance in the Live from Lincoln Center Emmy-nominated telecast of Mozart’s Requiem.

Following its appearance with Yuri Temirkanov and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Alexander Nevsky, Dessoff continues its 2007–08 season on December 1st at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City, with music by Benjamin Britten and Gerald Finzi. For more information, please visit dessoff.org.

Russian Chamber Chorus of New York
Nikolai Kachanov, Artistic Director
Nikolai Kachanov, founder and Artistic Director of the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, was born in Russia in the Siberian city of Barnaul. He holds a PhD in choral conducting from the Novosibirsk Conservatory. In 1981, Kachanov moved to the US, where he founded the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York (RCCNY). Under his direction, the chorus has presented critically acclaimed performances of works by well-known Russian masters. Kachanov brings a unique sensitivity and authentic interpretation to this well-known repertoire and to the ancient chants previously banned in his homeland. He is devoted to presenting new and underrepresented works that illustrate Russia’s rich heritage as well as commissioning new works for RCNNY. Kachanov created the Ussachevsky Festival of Russian-American Contemporary Music, held in 1992 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the music series Parallels and Crossings, featuring contemporary composers from different cultures and countries. Kachanov has prepared concert choruses for Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leon Botstein, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, and Peter Tiboris. He has been interviewed by Fred Child at NPR and by John Schaefer for New Sounds and Soundcheck. As a composer, Nikolai Kachanov has written numerous compositions. Two of his choral works, Benevolence and Reflections on Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan for chorus, piano, and two synthesizers, which interweave elements of Eastern and Western musical traditions, were premiered by the Russian Chamber Chorus to sold-out audiences at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in May 2003. Kachanov has trained his singers in the use of the Pythagorean and natural scale tuning systems, as well as in harmonic uses of the voice characteristic of the Tuva region of Siberia.

RUSSIAN CHAMBER CHORUS OF NEW YORK
The Russian Chamber Chorus of New York (RCCNY) was founded in 1984 by Artistic Director Nikolai Kachanov. Over the course of its 23-year history, the chorus has become America’s preeminent Russian vocal ensemble, one of the world’s greatest ambassadors of the Russian creative spirit. Known for stylistic versatility and heartfelt singing, RCCNY commands a repertoire spanning many centuries and styles, from ancient liturgical chants, through Russian Baroque, classical, and folk music, to world premieres by leading contemporary composers.

Under Kachanov’s direction, RCCNY has introduced American audiences to a long list of compositions, including the recently discovered Holy Week and Easter by Russian-American composer Alexei Haieff; works celebrated in Russia but unfamiliar in America, such as Gretchaninoff’s Liturgia Domestica, Taneyev’s John of Damascus, Sviridov’s Kursk Songs, Kalistratov’s Russian Choral Concerto, and Efraim Pogdaits’s New York Mass; and numerous ancient chants and landmark works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky.

RCCNY has become a regular presence at Carnegie Hall: RCCNY performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Kirov Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and the American premiere of Sergei Taneyev’s opera Agamemnon and Mikis Theodorakis’s opera Electra (concert versions) with the Manhattan Philharmonic under Peter Tiboris. In 2003, RCCNY performed at Carnegie in a concert series entitled Music and Dictatorship: Russia under Stalin with Maestro Ashkenazy, as well as in a program celebrating the 300th anniversary of the city of St. Petersburg, as part of the symposium St. Petersburg Through American Eyes.

RCCNY has received critical acclaim for its recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Vespers (The All Night Vigil), and Yuri Yukechev’s My Heart Is Ready.