Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Sung with clarity and sensitivity by the two choirs, this beautiful, impressive piece easily bears comparison with works that Shchedrin admires like Rachmaninov's Vespers. The instrumental part... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2009, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Mar 2009
Catalogue No: DCD34067
Label: Delphian
Length: 54 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

June 2009

Editor's Choice

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Delphian

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

This release includes a digital booklet

Delphian

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

Work length54:36

$13.00

$15.40

Marie Macklin (soprano), Fiona Mackay (alto), Emma Walshe (soprano), Benedict Hymas (tenor), Clare Wills (oboe), Nina Kanter (alto)
The Choir of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge, The Choir of King's College London
Geoffrey Webber, David Trendell

I. Truly. Angel of God, Let Your Tears Flow

Track length5:20

$1.00

$1.40

II. Because the Lord Has Been Revealed to Us

Track length3:01

$1.00

$1.40

III. Truly. Angels of the Assumption

Track length8:42

$2.00

$2.10

IV. The Disciples Were Illuminated

Track length8:33

$2.00

$2.10

V. Oboe Solo

Track length2:37

$1.00

$1.40

VI. Repentance Is Open for Me, O Life Giver

Track length4:11

$1.00

$1.40

VII. Let My Prayer Be an Atonement

Track length12:14

$3.00

$2.80

VIII. Truly. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Track length4:19

$1.00

$1.40

IX. Truly. Angel of God, Let Your Tears Flow

Track length5:39

$1.00

$1.40

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Two of Britain's finest young choirs join forces and cross a continent to take on the sublime expressiveness of Rodion Shchedrin's 'Russian liturgy', an astonishing statement of faith composed in the early days of perestroika. Shchedrin's choral tableaux juxtapose tenderness with bracing sonic impact, and are shadowed throughout by the plangent voice of a solo oboe representing the soul of the Russian people.This ground-breaking choral partnership committed the work to disc following acclaimed UK première concert performances at the Spitalfields and Oundle festivals in the summer of 2008. In 1992 President Boris Yeltsin awarded Shchedrin the Russian State Prize for The Sealed Angel.

"The music really comes alive … Superb performances" Church Music Quarterly, September 2007

"the choir of Gonville & Caius show themselves once again as one of Cambridge's most accomplished" Gramophone

Reviews

July 2009

Sung with clarity and sensitivity by the two choirs, this beautiful, impressive piece easily bears comparison with works that Shchedrin admires like Rachmaninov's Vespers. The instrumental part for 'shepherd's pipe', usually played by flute, is here taken by oboe, played affectingly by Clare Wills.

Geoffrey Webber's choir sings with greater passion than most of its Oxbridge rivals

2010

The allegorical resonances of The Sealed Angel – in which a rural community protects a religious icon – seem obvious and the text is purely religious, the equivalent of a cinematic treatment featuring the icon alone. The nine movements play continuously, the first three a flowing evocation of angels before the atmosphere changes in the freely dissonant fourth, depicting Judas's betrayal. After the great choral screech at its climax, the music calms down with the choir tacet in the fifth; the halting, static sixth is a chordal prayer of repentance and salvation. The vertical and horizontal elements then fuse in a powerful setting of the Lord's Prayer (section eight) before the quiet reprise of the opening.
Shchedrin provides a detached counterpoint to the voices with a series of oboe solos, free variations not so much on a theme as a way of writing.
These top and tail the main choral blocks, punctuating rather than accompanying, nicely played by Clare Wills. The choirs sing splendidly, without producing a Russian sound, yet the composer is aware of the English choral tradition so his music's translation here is fascinating. So is his avoidance of the holy minimalism of many of his compatriots or the consonance of Rautavaara's larger choral works. Caught here in fine sound, this is a splendid disc of a multifaceted, manylayered modern masterpiece.

June 2009

Caught here in fine sound, this is a splendid disc of a multifaceted, many-layered modern masterpiece. The choirs sing splendidly, without producing a Russian sound, yet the composer is aware of the English choral tradition so his music's translation here is fascinating.

glittering precision … marvellous choral sheen

23rd July 2010

...the subtle textures of Shchedrin's liturgy are perfectly rendered by the Latvian State Choir in the sonorous surroundings of Eberbach Monastery. The amazing polyphonic discord at the epiphanic moment of the revelation of Judas's betrayal is stunning.

Offer,Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue