A setting of “God is With Us!” by Pavel Chesnokov. Besides its usual usage in the services for Christmas, this work is also used a patriotic piece (it is certainly rousing enough!). It is sung by the choir of Aleksandr Govorov and uses a background of Russian patriotic paintings.
One of the old standards given a golden performance by the Kuban Cossack Chorus.
The Hunter (Nikolai Sverchkov, 1881)
Lately, I have noticed hits on my site looking for “hunting paintings”. Well… for you fellows looking for some nice outsdoorsy art, I shall be posting several good “a-hunting we will go” paintings by Sverchkov over the coming week. In this work, the borzois are running down a fox, and when they bring it to ground, the hunter shall dismount and dispatch it with his dagger (such was the way of it in old Russia).
Personally, I find hunters congenial, for they are usually upstanding fellows with a love of nature and those around them. I would trust a hunter before I would trust anyone from PETA… does that make me a moss-back (I certainly hope so!)?
An elegiac song popular in the Soviet era. It is not a lament, it is rather a song of wisdom looking back at its youth. “Everything leaves traces on this earth, and our bygone youth is immortal. How young we were! How earnestly we loved and believed in ourselves”. The beauty and wisdom of Russia lies in its peoples of all nationalities. This is why I chose photographs of ordinary Russians to accompany this lovely song. Not everything in the Soviet time was evil. Indeed, many young contemporary Russian musicians include Soviet-era songs in their repertoire because of their optimism (instead of the nihilism of Western rock).
This is sung by the famous operatic baritone Dmitri Khvorostovsky, with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra led by Constantine Obelian and the Style of Five playing Russian folk instruments.
