'Prayers and Praise' features music by the contemporary Russian composer Alexander Raskatov performed by the acclaimed vocal group the Hilliard Ensemble with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. As the title suggests, the two works included on the disc, Praise and Obikhod, are settings of liturgical texts. Both were written especially for the Hilliard Ensemble.

The composer Alexander Raskatov was born in Moscow in 1953 and now lives in France. His vocal piece ‘Praise’ was written in 1998 and consists of five liturgical texts from a number of services of the Byzantine rite in Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is arranged for a quartet of male voices and bells.

‘Obikhod’ also sets liturgical texts and was similarly composed for four male voices, but this time with the accompaniment of string orchestra. It was commissioned by the Hilliard Ensemble and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and first performed in November 2003.

Unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music, the Hilliard Ensemble is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in mediaeval repertoire as in works specially written by living composers. These include Arvo Pärt, often heard on their bestselling discs for the ECM label, Heiner Goebbels, Veljo Tormis, Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and many others. In 2007 they joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere Nunc Dimittis by Alexander Raskatov, also recording this for ECM (4766994).