If it is possible to compose Russian a cappella music that is at once severely contrapuntal and warmly sensual, austerely spiritual and deeply emotional, Sergey Taneyev did it in his 12 Choruses on poems by Jakov Petrovich Polonski, Op. 27. Compared with Rachmaninov's Vespers, with its massively archaic harmonies and deliberately anachronistic tone, Taneyev's Choruses are clearly products of their late romantic time and decadent imperial place. As performed by the Netherlands Chamber Choir led by T nu Kaljuste, Taneyev's Choruses sound at once robustly mystical and lucidly expressive. |
