News

The Northern Flowers are opening a new, and very interesting, creativity page: the Petersburg Musical Archive is releasing a CD titled Russian Folk Songs In Choir Arrangements (NF/PMA 9923).

On this CD, the LEGE ARTIS Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg (www.legeartis…), one of Russia’s best choral ensembles, performs Russian folk songs arranged for choir by Mussorgsky, Lyadov, Grechaninov, Sokolov, Stravinsky, Alexandrov, Sveshnikov, Rubtsov, Shostakovich, Mikhailov, Kolovsky, Slonimsky, and Kalistratov.

The tradition of folk song arrangement by Russian composers is traced to the origins of professional music in Russian: there has never been a well-known master that would not address this genre and try his abilities in the amazingly poetical world of folk art.

The pieces on the program were thoughtfully selected by Boris Abalian. They represent a broad spectrum of composers’ names of the 19th and 20th century. Most of the songs appear on a CD for the first time.

We have already cooperated with Boris Abalian and his excellent ensemble for the Northern Flowers festivals (the evening dedicated to the music of D. Smirnov (2002), and the Russian premiere of Schumann’s oratorio Der Rose Pligerfahrt (2003)). This CD seems to be a predictable sequel of our joint efforts for the sake of music, and will hopefully give many fresh and enjoyable impressions to music lovers — to all the friends of the Northern Flowers and LEGE ARTIS.