This anthology of Tchaikovsky’s sacred music is a valuable addition to the catalogue, containing as it does material from the composer’s 1884 85 and 1878 collections as well as four selections from the already well-known Liturgy from 1878. It shows Tchaikovsky experimenting with a number of musical styles in the quest for an appropriate sacred language. It is decidedly odd to hear the three settings of the Cherubic Hymn one after the other, but at least this means that the listener can hear these stylistic explorations very clearly.

The choir really enjoy the more dramatic settings, such as the magnificent ‘Blazhenni yazhe izbral’ and ‘Nyne sily nebesniya’, the magnificent Cherubic Hymn from the complete Liturgy and the exultant 1887 setting of Angel vopiyashe, but elsewhere I feel that they are somewhat compromised by the rather unforgiving studio acoustics. Low basses are certainly in evidence, however, and certainly do something to counter this problem by anchoring the sound, and Ahmann paces the music very well indeed. I’d really like to hear the choir perform this music live, in a church with decent acoustics.

Two small details: it is entirely bizarre, and incorrect, to sing ‘I vsekh i vsya’ at the end of ‘Dostoyno est’ – it is a choral response to the priest’s petition, not part of the text of the hymn; and to translate ‘blazhenni’ as ‘fortunate’ rather than ‘blessed’ is a decided theological stretch.