6. Bogoroditse Devo (Rejoice O Virgin) - University of Utah Singers

[SimoPepi11]

God is great ! let us praise Him forever !

[jcool1945]

That was wonderful :)

[johnfarango]

beautiful!!!! very nice job!!!! congratulations!!!!

[MrChoirfan]

I highly recommend Dr. Allred to take master classes from the giants of the Russian Choral Art such as Vladimir Minin, Valeriy Polyansky, and Vldislav Tchernushenko.

[UofUtahSingers]

@MrChoirfan Dr. Allred actually brought Dr. Vladimir Morosan (President of Musica Rusica) out to coach us and him on our Church Slavonic pronunciation, bringing out nuance, and capturing the essence of each movement in the weeks prior to our performance. He is truly a master in the field and we felt very fortunate to work with him and to have him there for the performance!

[MrChoirfan]

@UofUtahSingers In my opinion, there is two aspects of the working/performing Russian Sacred music:

1. It's absolutely great that at least some of American choral conductors invite experts in this field, but since Russia is located quite far from US and very a few Russian choral conductors can afford to travel with master classes around the World, Dr. Morosan, who lives in America has successfully filled in such a niche... I've just listened some of his recordings... (continue in the next post)

[MrChoirfan]

@UofUtahSingers (cont. from my previous post) ... the music I know by heart and sang under direction of Russian masters, I was "surprised" to find quite questionable in many aspects performances... His choir and Capella Romana sang Russian music in English!!! I think he may look like an expert in Russian language and Russian music in front of non-Russian speaking audience. People will simply trust the person with the Doctorate degree:-( He didn't make any recordings with Russian choirs...

[MrChoirfan]

Good: pitch, balance, ensemble

Not so good: vocal tone, which is too light/bright for the Russian sacred music

Bad: neither conductor nor singers really understand and feel the structure and expressiveness of the text, thus, the expressiveness of this music. From my experience as a former student in one of the Russian conservatories, our choir director worked on this composition (Vespers) note by note, phrase by phrase teaching us HOW TO perform this magnificent music.

[CBhimireddy]

Wonderful voices, and one of my favorite choral pieces ever, but the choir seemed stuck in their music and "held back" dynamically,. Then suddenly "let loose" at the cllimax. So disappointing. That said, it could be sung by a highschool choir and still be a moving; the piece is just that well written!

[anatomydude06]

very nice job! beautiful a little more low C at the end and it would have been perfect!