Utwory na płycie:

• Psalms of Repentance (1988) - Nr. 1 Adam sat weeping at the gates of paradise
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 2 O wildernessm gather me to you silent and gentle lap
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 3 That is why I live in poverty
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 4 My soul, why are you in a state of sin?
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 5 O man, doomed and wretched
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 6 When they beheld the ship that suddenly came
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 7 Oh my soul, why are you no afraid
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 8 If you wish to overcome unending sorrow
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 9 I have reflected on my life as a monk
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 10 Christian people, gather together!
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 11 I entered this life of tears a naked infant
• Psalms of repentance (1988) - Nr. 12 (Wordless humming)
• Magnificant (für gemischten Chor) (1989)
• Nunc dimittis (für gemischten Chor) (2001)

Alfred Schnittke:
Psalms of Repentance (Stikhi Pokayanniye) (1988)

Arvo Pärt:
Magnificat (1989)
Nunc dimittis (2001)

Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt lived through times of remarkable change in the last decades of the Soviet Union. From the 1970s, state restrictions on religion were gradually relaxed and this was reflected in the arts and especially in music. Schnittke’s adoption of Christianity was triggered by the death of his mother in 1972, and culminated in his later conversion to Catholicism. Pärt was from a nominally Lutheran background in Estonia, but embraced the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, following intensive study of liturgical music. Both composers began to incorporate religious themes into their work, moving away from the modernist abstraction that had characterized their early careers.

Schnittke’s large-scale Psalms of Repentancewere composed in 1988 for the celebrations for the millennium of Christianity in Russia. The texts come from an anonymous collection of poems for Lent, written in the 16th century, and in his settings Schnittkeengages with the traditions of chant-based Orthodox liturgical music. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Kaspars Putninš have chosen to combine Schnittke’s Psalms with two shorter works by Arvo Pärt, whose music they are well-known exponents of. Like the Psalms, Pärt’s pieces are composed in a quasi-liturgical style, and with its serene atmosphere, his Nunc dimittis forms a natural counterpart to the Magnificat even though the two were written more than a decade apart.

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Recording: January 2017 at St Nicholas’ Church (Niguliste kirik), Tallinn, Estonia