October 7, 2011
The Festival of Religious Music will begin at the Moscow Church of the “Joy to All the Afflicted” icon of the Mother of God on 14 October, the feast day of the Protection of the Mother of God. The opening is timed to coincide with the feast that enjoys a special esteem in Russia and with the commemoration day of St. Romanos the Melodus, a patron of singers and of the art of religious music.
The festival is a remarkable event, as the classical and modern church hymns will be sung during divine services. These musical pieces were composed for big choirs and it is impossible to listen to them during divine services, because choirs singing in churches are usually not so big. The idea of the festival is to invite Russian and foreign professional choirs singing religious music to have a liturgical practice.
The festival will open with the hierarchal Divine Liturgy on the feast of the Protection. Singing on that day will be the Boston Festival Choir named after Rachmaninov (USA), the Orthodox Choir of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Joensuu (Finland), and the Moscow Synodal Choir (Russia).
The Moscow Synodal Choir will also sing:
The All-Night Vigil by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) on Saturday, October 15
The Liturgy by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) on Sunday, October 16
The All-Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninov on Saturday, October 22
The Liturgy by Sergei Rachmaninov on Sunday, October 23
The All-Night Vigil by Alexander Kastalsky on Saturday, October 29
The Liturgy by Anton Viskov on Sunday, October 30
The Liturgy by Petr Tchaikovsky on Friday, November 4.
The Patriarchal divine service on Sunday, November 6, the feast day of the “Joy to All the Afflicted” Icon of the Mother of God, will conclude the festival. The boys and youth choir of the Sveshnikov Choral College and the Moscow Synodal Choir will sing at the service.
The services on Saturday begin at 06.00 p.m.; Sunday services and the service on November 4 – at 10.00 a.m.