Search - Choir of St Ignatius Loyola :: Schnittke: Concerto for Choir; Ginastera: Lamentations of Jeremiah

In our 20 years of presenting concerts on the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series on Park Avenue, we have brought a great deal of lesser-known yet exquisite choral music to our New York City audiences. There have been many musical epiphanies along the way, from Arvo Pärt s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and Miserere (both New York premieres) to Olivier Messiaen s Trois Petite Liturgies to many works by living American composers. One of our most profound discoveries was Alfred Schnittke s Concerto for Choir. I could see from the first rehearsal how moved our singers were by Schnittke s intensely personal choice of text (which we were singing in Russian) and by his incredible tool kit of techniques which brought that text alive. That was in early 2005. We unanimously felt that Concerto for Choir was a piece we needed to record, and so we revisited it in 2008. The audience at our performance of this live recording was rapt and silent (in spite of our creaky pews!) You may hear the occasional rumbling of the Metro North Railroad, which runs under Park Avenue. Above all, you will hear the devotion and commitment of these fine musicians to this crucial but still under-performed addition to the 20th Century canon of great choral music.