Melodiya presents musical works by contemporary Russian composer and clergyman Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev.

The Bishop of Volokolamsk, Vicar to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, a theologian, enlightener and translator, an author of scientific and popular works, Hilarion also possesses a pronounced composing gift. He began his ecclesiastical service in the 1980s after his study at the composition faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. Hilarion returned to musical activities twenty years later, in the mid 2000s.

Hilarion’s works based on divine texts but intended for concert halls combine centuries-old traditions of Western European church music with Russian church singing and Russian secular classical music refracting them in the light of the musical language of the 21st century.

This set includes pieces in the genre of cantata and oratorio written by Hilarion in 2007 to 2011 – Stabat Mater, A Song of Ascents, a symphony for choir and orchestra, and a large-scale Christmas Oratorio.

The works were recorded in 2011 by the Choir of the Popov Academy of Choral Art, the Boys Choir of the Moscow Sveshnikov Choral College and the National Symphony Orchestra of Russia led by the prominent maestro, violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov. The recording also features Hibla Gerzmava, a remarkable singer and prima donna of the world’s leading operatic stages, Nikolai Didenko, an owner of rare basso cantate, and Viktor Shilovsky, a soloist of the Vienna State Opera.