Sergey Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy Intrada Vocal Ensemble, Ekaterina Antonenko, OpensoundOrchestra & Stanislav Malyshev

• Sergey Akhunov (b. 1967): Ballet Liturgy:
• 1 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: I. Kyrie eleison I 06:44
• 2 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: II. Antiphonae II 02:40
• 3 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: III. Eisodos 04:30
• 4 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: IV. Antiphonae II 00:59
• 5 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: V. Hallelujah 05:25
• 6 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: VI. Cherubic Chant 04:20
• 7 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: VII. Welt ade 05:58
• 8 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: VIII. Kyrie eleison II 02:45
• 9 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: IX. Intermezzo 01:08
• 10 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: X. Anaphora 04:58
• 11 Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy: XI. Prosphora 08:39
• Total Runtime 48:06

Info for Sergey Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy

A graduate of the Kiev State Conservatory, Sergey started as an oboe player before moving on to other genres, including electronic music and Rock 'n roll. He made a decisive break from this style of music in 2005 to exclusively concentrate on orchestral and chamber music.​

The idea to stage the ballet "Liturgy" dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Sergei Diaghilev, Leonid Myasin and Natalia Goncharova planned to show the ballet without music - the only sound would be the rhythm of steps. They even wanted to involve Igor Stravinsky, who, however, refused. The production never took place.

Choreographer Olga Tsvetkova's new big project was created in co-authorship with composer Sergei Akhunov. For several years he had been working on the music for the ballet "Liturgy" - a production that was never realized in the early twentieth century.

“This production is not a ballet in the traditional sense of the word. It is, rather, an action in which, in addition to the dancers, other participants on stage are included. The main task is not to recreate the Orthodox church liturgy, but to reflect its beauty and deep meanings through music and dance." (Sergei Akhunov)

Intrada Vocal Ensemble
Ekaterina Antonenko
OpensoundOrchestra
Stanislav Malyshev, conductor

Intrada Vocal Ensemble
is a leading Russian-based vocal ensemble of a new generation directed by Ekaterina Antonenko. Intrada enjoys performing early music in collaboration with world-renowned artists – The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips, Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre, I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Frieder Bernius, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Stefano Montanari, etc.<>

Intrada is regularly invited to perform with Moscow’s leading orchestras under renowned conductors, such as the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet, Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev – venues, including Moscow and St.-Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinski Concert Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Moscow International House of Music and the Moscow Kremlin. Intrada is a regular guest at the Moscow festival December Nights founded by Svyatoslav Richter at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

Intrada performed at the Schlosskapelle Dresden in the frames of Dresdner Kunstfest 2015. Intrada appeared at the Musikfest Erzgebirge 2016 and at the Dresden Music Festival in 2017 and 2019. Following an invitation of the Deutschlandsradio Kultur the group performed at the Wartburg Castle in 2018. Intrada appeared in the first concert series of the Lausitz-Festival in 2019. In 2021 the group gave a concert at the Live From London – Christmas festival.

Intrada premiered a number of contemporary music compositions in Russia, including Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir and the Moscow premiere of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion. In 2014 a joint concert of The Tallis Scholars and Intrada dedicated to the memory of Sir John Tavener took place at the Moscow Conservatory Great Hall featuring the second world performance of Tavener’s Requiem Fragments (solo soprano – Julia Lezhneva). The group performed world premieres of works by Klaus Lang, Alexey Sysoev, Vladimir Rannev, Ilya Demutsky, Franck Christoph Eznikian and Arman Guschan. In February 2020 VOCES8 and Intrada gave a world premiere of Ivan Moody’s Trasfiguration during their joint concert at the Anglican church in Moscow.

OpensoundQuartet
is an ensemble of soloists of the Moscow OpensoundOrchestra, which specializes on the 20th – 21st century’s music performance. The first violin of the quartet – in every sense – is played by the founder of the orchestra, violinist, conductor, and concertmaster of the Studio for New Music ensemble Stanislav Malyshev. The concert given by OpensoundQuartet at Dom Radio is part of its tour across seven Russian cities.

Booklet for Sergey Akhunov: Ballet Liturgy