discover
Psalms of Repentance is Cappella Amsterdam’s third PENTATONE album, conducted by artistic director Daniel Reuss, featuring Alfred Schnittke’s penitential psalms. Composed in 1988 to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Christianization of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (Soviet Union states in 988), the work is based on anonymous 16th-century Russian texts about guilt and repentance.
It is one of the most impressive large-scale a cappella choral works of the 20th century, where intensely emotional texts are set to equally expressive music, blending ancient Orthodox musical traditions with late 20th-century compositional perspectives. This recording utilizes the original manuscript, which differs in several respects from the published score, offering an interpretation closer to the composer’s intentions.
acknowledgements
“Psalms of Repentance is a deeply serious, spiritual work that leaves one with a sense of quiet awe. Apart from the score itself, the musicianship and recording are of very high quality. The blend of the chorus is seamless, the mood ruminative. The recording feels smooth and spacious, but without echoes.”
– Fanfare
“The singers are as at home with Schnittke’s tortured canonic writing as they are with the flashes of tonal (or modal) calm and bursts of sunlight.”
– Gramophone
