Hyperion Records

A rather more positive view of Tchaikosvky’s sacred music than that of the Church was taken by Tsar Aleksandr III (1881–1894). He told the composer that he was puzzled at his not having written anything further in this field. Between November 1884 and April 1885, therefore, Tchaikovsky composed three further settings of the Cherubic Hymn, all similar in mood to that found in the complete Liturgy but much more influenced by chant and transparently modal. He also set a series of other sacred texts, three of them from the Liturgy (Tebe poem, Dostoyno est and The Lord’s Prayer); the magnificent, light-filled Blazhenni yazhe izbral comes from the Panikhidaÿ (funeral service), Da ispravitsya is from Vespers, and Nyne sily nebesnyya, in which the richness of Tchaikovsky’s scoring takes him close to Rachmaninov or Kastalsky, is from the Liturgy of the Presanctified.

from notes by Ivan Moody © 1997