Another fascinating recording from Grindenko’s magnificent choir, this time of chant from the Monastery of the Dormition in Volokolamsk for the office of the monastery’s founder, St Joseph, who died in 1515.
Those familiar with contemporary Orthodox practice will be fascinated by the difference to be heard in the chant used on this recording. Even the opening blessing arrests one’s attention, culminating as it does in an unusually florid “Amin”. The Patriarchate Choir are, as ever, entirely at home in this repertoire, singing always with ease, fluidity and conviction. Listen, for example, to the rhythmic vitality and the perfect declamation of the text in the psalm and stikherarion of track 6, or the sheer involvement of the solo tenor reader in track 10. There is a cumulative tension which is suddenly released in the magnificent, harsh polyphony of Psalm 134 (track 14), sung with consummate conviction and full of light and shade which nevertheless avoids any sense of sentimentality. Track 16, also polyphonic, deserves mention for the choir’s extraordinary feeling for the text, rapidly declaimed in dissonant chords as it is. Wholeheartedly recommended both for repertoire and performance.'