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St. Mary's Anglican Church
June 10, 2011
Anyone in search of that elusive phenomenon called Soul need only tune in on Russian choral music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Glinka, and by lesser-known pre-revolution composers such as Chesnokov, Grechaninov and Kedrov.
This sacred music bears no resemblance to Western happy-clappy religious celebration, but rather evokes nostalgic longing away from life under Czarist tyranny and Communist dictatorship towards a simpler existence filled with harmony and reflection.
The Voces Intimae mixed choir under the direction of Tony Booker offered an exquisite rendition of choral works mostly by these lesser-known composers. The architectural and acoustic setting of St Mary's contributed to the serene ambience. There were times when the voices wavered a little, and there were a few uneven starts, but these minor aberrations only added to the down-to-earth Russian flavour of the presentation.
The soprano, alto and tenor solo voices were splendid without aspiring to artificial operatic heights. Even the Russian language - presumably alien to most of the choir members - came through well in all its musical masculinity. Alas, there were no encores, even though the audience would surely have wanted to linger for more.
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