Unlike his secular concert music, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, Op. 41, shows few if any signs of his passionate personality or his famous late-Romantic style. Cast rather more in the somber style used in the eighteenth century by Dimitry Bortnyansky, and later in the twentieth century by Sergey Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky's diatonic and homophonic setting for a cappella choir is straightforward and hews closely to the austere Orthodox Christian tradition; perhaps his only concessions to the period's tastes are his somewhat overemphasized seventh chords and a few short passages of jubilant counterpoint. In this recording, Valery Polyansky and the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir render the Liturgy with adequate solemnity and a beautifully blended sound in the highly resonant Cathedral of the Dormition in Smolensk. This 2006 reissue from the Moscow Studio Archives has good sound thanks to the superb original engineering by Melodiya. ~ Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide
