In 1997, the Holst Singers and Stephen Layton produced a disc that immediately became a cult classic and a best-seller. 'Ikon', a selection of great Russian choral music from the 19th century, dazzled with its grand, opulent beauty. Now the same forces return with Ikon II. Many of the works recorded here are by composers whose names will not be familiar - but the extraordinary quality of the music is unmistakable and immediately enthralling. This recording centres on music produced by a group of composers linked to the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing, famous for its choir (comprising men and boys) at the beginning of the twentieth century. These composers made, up to the time of the momentous events of 1917, a significant contribution to the future of Russian choral music, one that, while never forgotten in Russia, is now also coming to be appreciated in the West. That their work did not emerge from a vacuum is made evident here by the inclusion of music by earlier composers: Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), Mili Balakirev (1837-1910) and Cesar Cui (1835-1918). |
