Rachmaninov, S.: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

"From a seemingly unlikely source comes a project that must be rated a serious contender for record of the year. Charles Bruffy and the Kansas City Chorale...take on Rakhmaninov's sizable Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with wonderful results. The chorus is everywhere remarkable, especially the basses, who prove fearless in approaching low-lying notes tailor-made for cavernous Russian basses." -- New York Times ----------------------- Another disc of absolutely stunning quality from the Kansas City Chorale and their clearly inspirational conductor Charles Bruffy. I have written elsewhere of the extraordinary control and tonal blend that this choir achieves and those qualities are amply on display here. But to think that technique is a substitute for passion and power would be quite wrong because they are present in abundance too.   Although far from rare in the CD catalogues now, Rachmaninov’s two great settings of the Russian Liturgy; the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom Op.31 a