Conductor, Composer. As founder of the famed Arkhangelsky Choir, which he led for 37 years, he spearheaded a renaissance of Russian choral music in the late 1800s. Arkhangelsky was born in Penza, Russia, and trained as a choirboy there and in St. Petersburg. He began conducting at age 16. Influenced by the Nationalists, he believed his country's sacred music had become too "Westernized" and sought to revive its earlier repertory. When the church establishment resisted his attempted reforms he created the Arkhangelsky Choir in 1880 and toured with them from Siberia to London. This was the first Russian ensemble in which women replaced boys in performances of the liturgy, as well as the first to appear in concert venues. His compositions, all written for the choir, include a Requiem (1892), a Vespers, two Masses and some 50 smaller pieces, the best known of which are "The Creed" and "Holy Radiant Light". He also made arrangements of folks songs and romances. Arkhangelsky inspired such composers as Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Rachmaninoff to set Orthodox texts, while the ubiquitous secular choruses of the Soviet era were rooted in his democratic approach to musicmaking. He was no fan of the Bolsheviks, however, and after the 1917 Russian Revolution he emigrated to Prague, where he died. The resurgence of Russian church music in the 1990s lifted him from decades of undeserved obscurity. The complete recordings of the Arkhangelsky Choir (originally issued from 1902 to 1916) have been remastered and are available on CD, as are several of his original works.
Conductor, Composer. As founder of the famed Arkhangelsky Choir, which he led for 37 years, he spearheaded a renaissance of Russian choral music in the late 1800s. Arkhangelsky was born in Penza, Russia, and trained as a choirboy there and in St. Petersburg. He began conducting at age 16. Influenced by the Nationalists, he believed his country's sacred music had become too "Westernized" and sought to revive its earlier repertory. When the church establishment resisted his attempted reforms he created the Arkhangelsky Choir in 1880 and toured with them from Siberia to London. This was the first Russian ensemble in which women replaced boys in performances of the liturgy, as well as the first to appear in concert venues. His compositions, all written for the choir, include a Requiem (1892), a Vespers, two Masses and some 50 smaller pieces, the best known of which are "The Creed" and "Holy Radiant Light". He also made arrangements of folks songs and romances. Arkhangelsky inspired such composers as Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Rachmaninoff to set Orthodox texts, while the ubiquitous secular choruses of the Soviet era were rooted in his democratic approach to musicmaking. He was no fan of the Bolsheviks, however, and after the 1917 Russian Revolution he emigrated to Prague, where he died. The resurgence of Russian church music in the 1990s lifted him from decades of undeserved obscurity. The complete recordings of the Arkhangelsky Choir (originally issued from 1902 to 1916) have been remastered and are available on CD, as are several of his original works.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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