Little Spot Productions

Поклонимся великим тем годам!!

"Let us bow down before the Great Years"

 

The Trinity-St Sergius Podvorye Choir School Performs at the Moscow Conservatory; Maestro Vladimir Gorbik conducts

the premiere performance of a new Symphony Orchestra.

 

On May 27th, 2017, at the Great Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Choir and Music School of the Trinity-St Sergius Representation Church held a recital. As with all recitals, this one showcased the unity of hard work and talent of children and adult singers and performers.

 

The show started much as all others probably have done, with the skillful, and excellent singing of a choir of very young children. As the concert proceeded, the audience was treated to various, and all highly advanced, presentations of both Russian folk and Orthodox Christian choral music and chant.

 

The concert was led by the truly beautiful and expert conducting of Dina Dovgan, who has been in charge of teaching the children and mixed choirs at the Podvorye. Dina is a fantastic musician, and her spirit is very strong. She is very gifted at infusing expert attitude and musicianship in her students. This day's concert proved that her efforts are not in vain. This reviewer was astounded on multiple occasions with her abilities and with the abilities of the children in her charge.

 

The finale of the concert was something that we have not seen from the Podvorye music school in the past. A long time dream of Maestro Vladimir Gorbik, the rector and first regent of this school, has been to have a symphony orchestra as part of the retinue.

 

This year, this dream became a reality.

 

The Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Gorbik came into existence on March 15th, 2017. It is comprised of the existing Male Choir and Mixed Choir that both have sung at the Podvorye for years, and about sixty musicians from the great conservatories and music schools around Moscow. This orchestra is young, and the performers are full of the energy of their youth, and the skill of the finest musicians in the world.

 

As many people probably know, Russia has long since been the home of some of the finest composers and musicians that the world has ever known. Vladimir Gorbik believes the reason for this can be found in the prayer life of the Orthodox Christian, supported by the Russian Orthodox Church.

 

In a recent interview with Andrew Gould of the Orthodox Arts Journal website, Maestro Gorbik said,

 

“Unfortunately, there are many conductors in the world who are very far from common sense. Not only are they not Orthodox [Christian] believers – they are not believers in God at all… They do strange interpretations of classical music… My spiritual father, Metropolitan Longin of Saratov said to me, ‘Vladimir, if a conductor is a believer in God, [then] God helps him to unite musical form with content.’”

 

(Orthodox Arts Journal, interview with Andrew Gould, www.orthodoxartsjournal.org, March 21, 2017.)

 

Met. Longin’s statement is extremely important because neither of the selections that Maestro Gorbik conducted at the Conservatory are works of Orthodox composers or even of Orthodox sacred music.

 

Maestro Gorbik is presently known throughout Russia and around the world as one of the finest and most spiritually “tuned-in” conductors. His presentation and interpretation of Russian Orthodox sacred Church singing is unique in its soulfulness and power, this even for a nation that is blessed to have many fantastic choirs and conductors.

 

But here, the two pieces performed were Mozart’s “Dies Irae” from his Requiem Mass, and Pakhmutova’s “Поклонимся великим тем годам” (Let us bow down before the Great Years), which is an anthem commemorating the battles in the Great Patriotic War. Neither selection comes from the tradition of the Russian Church. And more, the latter piece springs from the Soviet period of Russian history.

 

For many Russians, “Poklonimsya” is a connection to the Communist part of the nation’s history, which is not exactly reviled here. Presently, Russia has been thrust into the chaos of a vigorous market economy, and so many unpredictable things happen from day to day that some miss the stability of Communist times. Regardless of whether one actually misses Communism, all Russians remember that their nation, and indeed the entire Soviet Union, was fighting for its very existence against the Nazi foe, and many, many people were lost defending the Motherland.

 

This second piece is, therefore, the one that stood to be compared against Metropolitan Longin’s statement. Could Maestro Gorbik accomplish the raising up of an extremely important patriotic song and lift it in such a way that it becomes connected with the resurgent soul of Orthodox Christianity presently rising in the Russian lands?

 

The answer to that is a resounding “Yes!”

 

This symphony orchestra is unique in that it combines the performance effort of people dedicated specifically to excellence in sacred music, with that of people who are simply dedicated to excellence in music, whether sacred or not. And, the prayerful guidance of Maestro Gorbik is not something that the average audience member would see. In Gorbik's sacred choral concerts he submits to the tradition of the Church and appears in his podryaznik. In this symphony setting, he conducted in the traditional tuxedo with tails.

 

However, when the music began, there was divine fire, animating and driving the intensity of these two works far beyond simply well executed performance pieces, which they certainly are. Dies Irae burned with the fire of the Judgment itself, as the choir and orchestra delivered this sacred text as it would be in a service, with meaning and soul.

 

And then came Pakhmutova's piece. Everyone was sitting down when this piece started. That did not remain so. And whether the audience member was a man, woman or child, young or old, Russian, American or other foreign visitor, everyone stood to honor the memory of the great and tragic years of the Russian Motherland, and we all honored those brave people who gave their lives for this nation.

 

Russia’s struggle and triumph against the Nazi forces marked a turning point, even while still within the fear and terror earlier promulgated by Josef Stalin. For here, Stalin at least tacitly, and possibly more than tacitly, opened the Churches again, so that the people would go and pray for the Russian nation. And God granted even this effort His great mercy and grace for the victory of Russia and her eventual return to her Lord. And, this text, written later, evokes the Almighty in gratitude, even though the text never mentions God at all.

 

The presentation of this piece in the concert transcended the limitation of the text itself, and turned this into a solemn and triumphant hymn of remembrance. And the presentation made it Orthodox and Christian, with the full heart and soul of the Russian nation reflected in its performance. Interestingly enough, due to technical issues at the concert surrounding the piece’s recording, it got performed twice. And, both times the audience’s response was to honor these who were lost.

 

When we look at the world as Christian believers, we can see the world a little like God sees it. When we unite our lives with the Lord in prayer and make what we do all about living this relationship with Him, He comes into every part of our life and work. This is what Met. Longin was talking about. God guides the voices of the singers, the bows of the musicians, and the hands and eyes of the conductor, and this can transform something good into something far more, transcendent and holy, and with surprising width.

 

Vladimir Gorbik has done something here that the world has not paid attention to in a long time. The great composers of Western Europe were usually deep believers, not just theoretical artists playing with sacred texts. The masterful recordings of their compositions fill the libraries of the musical world, and many of them are remarkable, often astounding. But the prayer of a believer can move mountains, and the grace of God can heal the nations and change the world. In the efforts of Maestro Gorbik and this new symphony orchestra, we see the unity of the best we can offer as people, and the great and unlimited grace that God offers to anyone who earnestly seeks Him.

 

We eagerly look forward to more from the Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Gorbik in coming months and years, and we are very grateful to Maestro Gorbik, to Met. Longin and to all the musicians and singers for making this project come to life.

Little Spot Productions is honored to serve in the role of Producer for this new Symphony Orchestra.  Stay tuned to www.littlespotproductions.com for more news as this project grows!