Pug’s Place

[UF Performing Arts Description]

First off: WOW!

Secondly: Dude!!

With that out of the way, a brief history: The choir was founded by Ivan the Terrible in 1479. It has existed in various states without err since then, through name changes and what have you. The choir gained its present name when Peter the Great, a former member of this choir, founded his window to the West of St. Petersburg, and declared that his choir should reside there for all of its remaining years.

You can find much of their history online, and what I’ve read of it in this short time is quite interesting. But now for the present. Amazingly enough, this truly appears to be this choir’s first performance in the United States of America. I can find no record online of them ever playing in the USA before. Additionally, my program clearly states that the St. Petersburg’s Capella Choir makes its U.S. Premiere with this concert. Well, if this is their first trip to this country, then I can say with no doubt that they could not have had a more enthusiastic and receptive audience! Their performance for the evening was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, opus 37. The program assures me that this work “stands as the crowning achievement of the ‘Golden Age’ of Russian Othrodox sacred choral music.” Its 15 movements passed in what seemed to be a heartbeat, yet my watch clearly said it had been an hour. Something about Russian is more melodious than that French stuff that people always dote on.

The sound was a bird of prey in flight. At once high above the surrounding
audience, and then barely overhead, swooping in awesome arcs. The conductor
must not be ignored, though! Vladislav Chernushenko, born in 1936 in
Leningrad, was an impressive sight to behold. While all the women wore
Byzantine layered gowns of gold or white (if they were Altos or Sopranos) and
the men wore a mid-shin-length black button overcoat with gold trim and black
boots, Vladislav wore black slacks and a zip-up jacket the sort that my father
loves so dearly in the winter. When he guided the choir it looked a complete
departure of any manner of conducting that I have seen before. It was entirely
non-western. He seemed to be knitting, in truth. In quiet times, he was simply
knitting. As things became more intense, he began stepping about, tearing at
the air with his fingers. In the full resounding climaxes it was as if he were
facing a phantasm, and were rending it apart with his bare hands like a frenzied grizzly bear.

When the program drew to a close and the audience had its opportunity to
voice its enjoyment, the auditorium thundered. It was the first of many
standing ovations. Three minutes of unstoppable applause for the choir, the
conductor, and the various soloists (several of whom were incredible!) brought
the conductor to wave for us to shut up. The first encore began. It was a more
upbeat Russian song, definitely not classical. It had two soloists, one of
them being a strikingly blond (and tall) man (I think he was a Tenor), and the other this short Alto. I’d describe the piece if I could, but I can’t… It ended with a second standing ovation.

The choir could not have glowed any more than it did. They were positively beaming. The conductor walked off stage twice, I know not for what purposes. Perhaps asking someone if Americans were really this easy to please. At any rate, we were waved to silence once again. The choir opened their folders and their two people with (apparently) perfect pitch hummed in a curious sort of harmony. They began an English gospel song. I could make out the “Alleluia”’s and “Jesus”‘es, but that was about it. While the song was in English, their Russian accents made things quite interesting, and also quite impossible to understand in harmony. Oh well!

This ended to their THIRD standing ovation. I thought I could see the conductor saying “Go home, people!” But go home we did not, and cease they did not! Two of the men proved an extra use for their long overcoats and pulled from inside pockets small instruments – one, a triangle. The other a tambourine. This was a definitely more modern-tempoed song, and the choir had a good time bouncing (yes! bouncing!!) left and right while singing it. It was Russian, I should point out. It got my foot tapping, the same with the two people next to me!

Yet again, the audience pulled the conductor back, and he waved for us to be bloody silent again! With opened folders the choir began some sort of English song that involved the phrase “Move to (me?)”. That was all I could pick out of it. It sounded almost like a Handel piece. No real idea, though.

We didn’t let them go home yet. The fifth encore is the charm, you know! They finished off by bringing up the two soloists from the first encore. Thus began a song with very complex and common meter shifts… what must have been a Russian drinking song! Sure, the choir could just have been swaying back and forth unsteadily for fun, but when the conductor was conducting as if he were holding a massive beer stein in each hand, raising it in toasts to the various men who had short solo parts in the midst of the bass bum-dum-bumping, the nature of the song became pretty clear. The audience loved it! But that was all for the choir, because after a brief series of bows, the conductor led the sprite-footed, bouncing singers offstage.

Again, it was a “wow!” sort of night. If this talented group of Russians comes near your town, definitely get a ticket!