Drawing upon both the rich liturgical hymnography of the Nativity feast and the carols, this is a unique depiction of the Orthodox Nativity as heard throughout Russia and the Ukraine. This CD includes several first recordings of music by Katalsky, Izvekov and their followers, suppressed during the 20th-century, and which have only recently come to light.

The life and career of Alexander Kastalsky (1856-1926) was particularly tragic.At the end of the 19th-century he was acclaimed as the founder of a new choral style for Russian church music, to be cultivated at a highly unique 'academy' of sacred music under his directorship - the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing. It was regarded, both in Russia and abroad, as the core of a newly invigorated national art that would give Russian music a distinct identity. Instead, Bolshevik persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church forced the closing of the Moscow School and the disbanding of the world-acclaimed Synodal Choir. Kastalsky's desperate attempts to salvage the institution and the choir on a purely secular foundation also proved futile. Thus, his richly-scored and vibrant choral music has lain forgotten for nearly three quarters of a century.

Even more tragic is the fate of Georgiy Izvekov (1874-1937). After studying and teaching Russian folk music, he became a priest and well-respected composer of liturgical music, an activity he continued until his arrest in 1931 for 'anti-Soviet activities'. A second arrest in 1937 resulted in his being executed by firing squad. Izvekov's imaginative and colourful sacred works, based on chant-like motifs and employing the principles of 'choral orchestration' initially developed by Kastalsky, remain practically unknown; his Festive Canon for the Nativity is recorded on this CD for the first time.

In Ukraine, many of the same aspirations spearheaded in Russia by Kastalsky for the creation of a national ecclesiastical music grounded in the folk choral tradition, were harbored by Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921) and Kyrylo Stetsenko (1882-1922), who was also an Orthodox priest. Together with their compatriots Yakiv Yatsynevych (1869-1945) and Vasyl Barvinskyi (1888-1963), they were active as students of musical folklore, collectors and arrangers of folk songs and carols, choral conductors and musical pedagogues. Both Leontovych and Stetsenko died untimely deaths at the ages of 44 and 40, respectively, during the turbulent years following the 1917 revolution; Barvinskyi, though he died at the venerable age of 75, was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by the Soviet government in 1948. As with Kastalsky and Izvekov, their choral music has remained largely unknown and makes a rare appearance on the present CD.

Paul Hillier is one of the world's foremost choral conductors. He is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC), Founder and Director of Theatre of Voices and Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen. He co-founded The Hilliard Ensemble and during his tenure as musical director the group rose to international prominence. Hillier enjoys close creative relationships with many living composers, most notably Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt, both of whom have written works for him to perform with his various ensembles.