Passion week

This internationally-acclaimed recording received the French honor '5 Diapasons' in Diapason magazine, as well as being nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Choral Performance and for the BBC Music Magazine Choral Award (UK).

Passion Week is a previously unknown choral masterwork, written by Maximilian Steinberg in 1920s St. Petersburg, Russia. The piece was never performed in the composer's lifetime due to the Bolshevik ban on sacred music. Steinberg was a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the prized student of Rimsky-Korsakov, a classmate of Stravinsky, and the teacher of Shostakovich. He composed Passion Week in secret over a period of three years.

In 2016, The Clarion Choir had the great privilege of traveling to Russia to perform this work for the very first time in the country where it was written. The choir gave the Russian premiere at the St. Petersburg Grand Philharmonic Hall, followed by performances in Moscow at Rachmaninoff Hall and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. On Russian television, Clarion's tour was called 'the greatest kind of collaboration between our two countries'. The group then traveled to London to give the UK premiere of Passion Week in The Duke's Hall of the Royal Academy of Music, a performance that received critical acclaim in the Times of London.

Clarion's recording of Passion Week has helped bring significant international attention to this long-neglected Russian masterpiece:

Some other honors and reviews the recording has received include:

BBC Music Magazine (UK)

‘Choral & Song Choice’ for December 2016
Performance: ★★★★★ Recording: ★★★★★
‘A magnificent discovery…deserves the widest possible dissemination.’

WFMT Chicago

Passion Week included in Ten Best Classical Recordings of 2016

iTunes Russia

iTunes Russia featured Passion Week this fall, during the The Clarion Choir's tour to premiere the work there.

Gramophone (UK)

‘...exemplary tone and diction... the choir’s blend is creamy and devoid of rough edges... luscious, uplifting Alleluias which round off the disc’s concluding “Let all mortal flesh” will surely encourage other choirs to tackle this newly restored masterpiece.’

Fanfare:

a ‘magnificent rendition’

Classics Today:

‘a vibrant, shimmering tone…’

Classical CD Reviews:

‘compelling…the purity of tone is exceptional’

American Record Guide:

‘grand singing and total conviction.’