
Musician’s album on Gramophone Editor’s Choices list
Passion Week is the latest release by Dr Alexander Lingas and Cappella Romana
An album by City musician Dr Alexander Lingas and his group
Cappella Romana has been named on the Gramophone Editor’s Choices list for
August.
The release, Passion Week, is described as an “outstanding
achievement” by the classical music magazine.
Directed by Dr Lingas, a Reader in the Department
of Music, Cappella Romana is a vocal ensemble that is best known for performing
medieval Byzantine chant.
Passion Week is a composition by Lithuanian-born Maximilian
Steinberg, who completed the piece in 1923 while living in Russia, one month
before the country introduced a ban on sacred music.
According to Dr Lingas, Steinberg's work is a choral setting of Russian chant comparable in its scale and technique to Rachmaninoff’s famous All-Night Vigil (the so-called Vespers), Opus 37.
Gramophone, which has picked the recording as one of the top
12 releases of the month, praises the Cappella Romana singers for their “eloquent
brilliance” in a review of the album.
The review states: “This important and exciting release from
the Portland, Oregon-based 26-strong chamber choir is a notable successor to
their ‘Good Friday in Jerusalem’ disc. Under their inspiring director Alexander
Lingas they turn their attention to a recently rediscovered choral gem… Their
unanimity of attack and fastidious approach to dynamic contrasts are just two
hallmarks of an outstanding achievement… This is definitely a disc to savour.”
Passion Week made its debut at number seven on the Billboard classical chart, following on from the success of Good Friday in Jerusalem, which made it to eighth spot earlier this year.
Dr Lingas said: “Nine decades after it was suppressed, Steinberg’s Passion Week is finally receiving the attention it deserves.
“The recovery and public presentation of this forgotten masterpiece demonstrates once again the impact of scholarly and creative work at City's Department of Music.”
Cappella Romana is a professional vocal ensemble that performs early and contemporary sacred classical music in the Christian traditions of East and West. The ensemble is known especially for its presentations and recordings of medieval Byzantine chant (the Eastern sibling of Gregorian chant), Greek and Russian Orthodox choral works, and other sacred music that expresses the historic traditions of a unified Christian inheritance.