ALL ALIVE

суббота, 11 августа 2012 г.

четверг, 21 июля 2011 г.

Living the Orthodox World-View. Part 1

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)

A talk delivered by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) at the St. Herman Pilgrimage, August 1982, St. Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina, California.
Introduction (MP3 file, 4:58 min. 4,62 Mb) download >>
Before beginning my talk, a word or two on why it is important to have an Orthodox world-view, and why it is more difficult to build one today than in past centuries.
In past centuries — for example, in 19^th-century Russia — the Orthodox world-view was an important part of Orthodox life and was supported by the life around it. There was no need even to speak of it as a separate thing—you lived Orthodoxy in harmony with the Orthodox society around you, and you had an Orthodox world-view provided by the Church and society. In many countries the government itself confessed Orthodoxy; it was the center of public functions and the king or ruler himself was historically the first Orthodox layman with a responsibility to give a Christian example to all his subjects. Every city had Orthodox churches, and many of them had services every day, morning and evening. There were monasteries in all the great cities, in many cities, outside the cities, and in the countryside, in deserts and wildernesses.
In Russia there were more than 1,000 officially organized monasteries, in addition to other more unofficial groups. Monasticism was an accepted part of life. Most families, in fact, had somewhere in them a sister or brother, uncle, grandfather, cousin or someone who was a monk or a nun, in addition to all the other examples of Orthodox life: people who wandered from monastery to monastery, and fools-for-Christ. The whole way of life was permeated with Orthodox kinds of people, of which, of course, monasticism is the center. Orthodox customs were a part of daily life. Most books that were commonly read were Orthodox. Daily life itself was difficult for most people: they had to work hard to survive, life expectancy was not great, death was a frequent reality — all of which reinforced the Church's teaching on the reality and nearness of the other world. Living an Orthodox life in such circumstances was really the same thing as having an Orthodox world-view, and there was little need to talk of such a thing.

Today, on the other hand, all this has changed. Our Orthodoxy is a little island in the midst of a world which operates on totally different principles — and every day these principles are changing for the worse, making us more and more alienated from it. Many people are tempted to divide their lives into two sharply distinct categories: the daily life we lead at work, with worldly friends, in our worldly business, and Orthodoxy, which we live on Sundays and at other times in the week when we have time for it. But the world-view of such a person, if you look at it closely, is often a strange combination of Christian values and worldly values, which really do not mix. The purpose of this talk is to see how people living today can begin to make their world-view more of one piece, to make it a whole Orthodox world-view.

Orthodoxy is life. If we don't live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox, no matter what formal beliefs we might hold.

Life in our contemporary world has become very artificial, very uncertain, very confusing. Orthodoxy, it is true, has a life of its own, but it is also not very far from the life of the world around it, and so the life of the Orthodox Christian, even when he is being truly Orthodox, cannot help but reflect it in some way. A kind of uncertainty and confusion have also entered into Orthodox life in our times. In this talk we will try to look at contemporary life, and then at Orthodox life, to see how better we might fulfill our Christian obligation to lead other-worldly lives even in these quite terrible times, and to have an Orthodox Christian view of the whole of life today that will enable us to survive these times with our faith intact.

For further information contact http://www.stherman.com/catalog/

29 / 11 / 2007

The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin (published by Sretensky Monastery and St. Xenia Skete)

31 / 12 / 2007

Search for Truth on the Path of Reason

New from Sretensky Monastery, a classic of Christian apologetics by Professor Alexei I. Osipov: The Search for Truth on the Path of Reason, is now available in English. Alexei Ilych Osipov of the Moscow Theological Academy is possibly the most widely known professor of Theology in Russia today.
This book fills the order of a needed genre: Christian Apologetics for intellectual seekers and products of the Age of Reason. The author believes that, “It is natural for a Christian to know ‘the certainty of those things, wherein he has been instructed’ (cf. Lk. 1:4). But, as the Apostle Peter writes, you should be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1 Pet. 3:15).”
Prof. Osipov presents an overview of Western philosophy, the roots of religion and atheism, the relationship between religion and science, different forms of paganism, spiritual experience, and other related topics. He provides intelligent and clear arguments against atheism, and clearly delineates between all the various religious experiences, contrasting them with Orthodox experience and patristic teaching. This book has proved invaluable for seminary students and pastors in Russia as that country emerges from decades of religious persecution and a militant atheist regime. The Western philosophies and systems of thought described in this overview have left such a deep impressions on our society as well that we can scarcely see beyond their influence.
Osipov shows also the flip-side of Western rationalism, which is the various forms of mysticism and paganism that continually reproduce themselves in different guises. This book can help us to discern all of these trends, manifestations, and world views from an Orthodox, patristic perspective.

The book also includes a description of how Igumen Nikon (Vorobyev), who was Prof. Osipov’s spiritual guide and instructor from an early age, came to a sure and direct knowledge of God after desperate years of fruitless searching through science, philosophy, and psychology. He finally found the truth in his native Orthodox Christian religion; he then embarked upon the infinitely fulfilling study of the “science of sciences,” found in the unanimous experience of the fathers of our Church.
The Search for Truth on the Path of Reason can be purchased from:
           CSB Publishing
           P.O. Box 265
           Ash Grove, MO 65604
           tel./fax: 417-751-3183
           csbpub@sbcglobal.net
(ISBN: 978-0-9842848-0-1, 312 pages)
Also available from CSB Publishing:
Thou Hast Proved Me O Lord, and Knowest,
the inspiring biography of Hieromonk Vasily of Optina Monastery, who was murdered by a satanist on Pascha morning, 1993.

Alexei Ilyich Osipov

A Christian’s Freedom, the Church’s Freedom, and Religious Freedom
The Foundation of the Church’s Social Service

17 / 11 / 2009

Well-paid defense of their rights

They're well-paid by western, mainly American charity funds. But not all the organizations are paid by American funds. They granted only those groups which support them who's needed. If an organizaton defends the rights of them, who isn't needed, e.g. Latvian Committee defending the rights of Russians or Russian-speaking people living in Latvia – it's not granted. Such organisations are called... “Communist”! (O. A. Popov, “Moskva”, #1, 2004, http://www.moskvam.ru/).
It's not so necessary for managers of American funds to announce their preferences publicly – Russian human rights know by theirselves who “needs or needn't defense”. For example, the Chairman of International Helsinki Federation (IHF) L. M. Alekseyeva “knows” them. She and the rest of the leaders of IHF advised Serbian human rights activists in an open letter not to blame NATO bombings, even at the time when NATO bombs had been dropping on their heads (http://www.ihf.org/). But what should she do if six of the ten donors of IHF were the “charity” funds managed by the governments of the countries–members of NATO? Moreover, American Human Rights Watch financed by George Soros, collecting “materials on genocide and ethnical sweeps” in Bosnia and Kosovo is a member of this International Helsinki Federation. And George Soros himself is a member of the Board of Directors of IHF.
In this article the goals and motives of American funds to grant Russian non-governmental organizations (NGO) including human rights organizations are discussed. There is also a brief reference to the history, “philosophy”, annual budgets and leaders of some big American funds which traditionally granted Russian human rights organizations.

CHARITY FUNDS – WHO NEEDS THEM?

American charity funds may be classified as big (the Ford Foundation with its annual budget of 598 million dollars of grants and donations) and (or) small (J. M. Kaplan Fund with a budget of $ 6,9 million).
You may divide charity funds according to the type of corporations which invest them into “industrial” (the Ford Foundation) and “financial” (the Soros Foundations Network). They also may be “liberal” (e.g. managed by Soros) or “conservative” (e.g. Scaife Foundations), financing “neo-cons”; of a “general type” or “special”, financing only one of the spheres (only defense of human rights or preservation of nature.
It's also appropriate to classify “charity” funds as governmental or private. The majority of them are, of course, private. The number of private funds is, as specialists counted, more than 2000, the number of governmental ones is easy countable; it reflects American approach to financing non-commercial sphere. Originally charity funds were intended to release the government from supporting non-profitable spheres – science, art, preservation of nature, solution of the problems of homeless etc. Earliest of them were established at the beginning of XX century by Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford and their goals lay within these spheres; their activities were aimed at solving interior problems.
Joan Roelofs, a well-known researcher of charity funds called the three reasons of establishing funds and investing them the capitals of American billionaires (Joan Roelofs, “Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism”, SUNY Press, Albany, Feb. 2003). The first reason was purely financial – decrease of income that causes decrease of income tax. The second – to create an instrument for permanent influence on social-cultural atmosphere of the society and by means of that to enforce their control over the society. The third – to improve their image that is very important in terms of competitive economy.
As co-operation between the government and big business had been intensified and American political-economical elite had been formed, it became nesessary to create a neutral structure which businessmen, power structures and academician world could interact within. Private (non-governmental) and non-commercial organizations (NGO) became such structures; among them financial organizations played an important role in solving a number of national problems.
The need of establishing governmental funds occurred only when the solution of national geopolitical problems called for a coordinated governmental policy and control of both leading American parties – Democratic and Republican. Such a situation occurred after the World War II in view of forming a “communist” world leading by the Soviet Union.
American establishment was set a number of tasks depended on antagonism between the two superpowers – the USA and the USSR – as different civilisation systems:
-         financing organizations, parties and movements opposing “socialism” and “nationalism” (patriotic movement)
-         spreading the ideas and concepts of “open society” by the means of establishing and financing educational systems, schools, “liberal” press and TV
-         creating “non-commercial” sphere, i.e. non-governmental organizations (NGO), which would gradually take charge of cultural, educational, social, charitable functions of governmental institutions. As a result, the society (its legitimate and legislative bodies) would lose control over this sphere. So the conditions of civilisational transformation of the Russian Nation would be created; it causes the loss of its identity and definitive turning into a source of raw materials of the “golden billion”.
-         forming a “civic society” upon a western model on the basis of liberal and cosmopolitan human rights ideology
-         establishing and financing schools and universities to train lawyers and social workers; revision of existing educational programs, drawing up new laws
-         struggle against xenophobia, anti-semitism and Russian chauvinism, against infringing upon rights of non-traditional confessions.
You see that all above mentioned supposedly have nothing common with CIA. But even Central Intelligence Agency now isn't the same as in 50s – 60s. “Co-operation with respected and prestigious foundations lets CIA finance programs, influencing youth groups, universities, publishers and other private institutions, including human rights organizations with practically infinite sums” – we quote the materials of the hearings of the Congress on activities of CIA in 1976. Now funds are considered “the best cover of financial expenses...” Another information from the same materials of the hearings corroborates that almost 50% of “700 grants of the main American funds spent on international projects” were financed by CIA.

THE MOST “POPULAR” IN RUSSIA AMERICAN FUNDS

What western funds (including American ones) are engaged in “civilizational” transformations in Russia? To answer this question it's nesessary to know who finances Russian non-commercial sphere (in particular, human rights organizations). It's impossible to investigate the sources of all grants received by Russian human rights organizations because some of them often don't report who is their sponsor (donor), and what sum they were granted.
Let us choose the two best known metropolitan human rights organizations – Moscow Helsinki Group and “Memorial” and the two provincial ones – Perm Human Rights Center and Ryazan branch of “Memorial”.
Here are ALL the funds financing Moscow Helsinki Group:
-         Liberty Road (governmental, the Embassy of Switzerland in Russia)
-         Department for International Development (governmental, GB)
-         European Commission (governmental, EU)
-         Ford Foundation (private, USA)
-         MacArthur Foundation (private, USA)
-         MATRA (governmental, the Embassy of Netherlands in Russia)
-         National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (governmental, USA)
-         Open Society Institute (private, George Soros, USA)
-         UK Foreigh Ministry
-         United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (governmental).
This shows that NO Russian organization is among the donors of Moscow Helsinki Group. But seven of them are the governmental structures of the countries-members of NATO (except Switzerland). Now you can imagine what sort of policy is conducted by this human rights group which is financially independent from Russian government but financially dependent on governments of NATO countries.
In the list there are five American foundations: three of them are private (Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Institute), two – governmental (National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID).
Here are the main donors of Moscow “Memorial” (some of minoritary donators, such as Edward Klein etc. aren't worth to be mentioned): Open Society Institute (George Soros), Ford Foundation, NED, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Bradley Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation (USA).
Perm Center is financed by foreigh funds – Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, Eurasia Foundation (George Soros), Henry M. Jackson Foundation, International Research and Exchange Council and G. Kennan Institute (USA). Worth to be mention Russian sponsors of Perm Human Rights Center are the administrations of Perm and Perm Region, LUKoil-Perm Company and Motovilikha Plant.
Ryazan human rights activists' foreign sponsors are Ford foundation, NED, Institute for Democracy in East Europe (USA), Open Society Institute, Eurasia Foundation, Freedom Path (the government of Switzerland) and the government of Netherlands. The only Russian organization financing Ryazan “Memorial” is a human rights group “For Civic Society” granted by the same Ford Foundation and NED.
So, the “leaders” in financing Russian human rights organizations are private charity funds – Ford Foundation and Open Society Institute, and governmental National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

“INDUSTRIAL” FUNDS

Ford Foundation is probably the biggest charity fund in the USA. It was founded by Henry Ford, an automobile industry tycoon in 1930s, but after the World War II it lost connection with him and by now have been managed by the Board of Trustees. It was the first of funds to join the “cold war”. In 1952-54 Richard Bissel was its director, later he became a deputy of the director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Allen Dulles. Then John McCloy, a former deputy Secretary of Defense, a former President of World Bank, a former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank became the director of Ford Foundation. It was him who created a special department within the Foundation to co-operate with CIA...
After the well-known denunciations of 1960-70s Ford Foundation began acting more flexibly and warely. Former leaders of CIA and its departments no more held leading positions at the Board of Trustees. From 1996 Susan Berresford has been holding the position of the President of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation. She is a member of the Council for Foreign Relations and also a member of so-called Trilateral Commission in which leading politicians, economists and financiers of capitalist world took part (Russian members – S. A. Karaganov and G. A. Yavlinsky).
The board of Trustees of Ford Foundation consists of 16 members including the presidents of the biggest American corporations such as Xerox, Alcoa Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Rock Creek Co. (an investment and insurance company, an affiliate of well-known Carlyle Group). There are the presidents of the biggest American universities and well-known lawyers among the leaders of the Foundation.
As to concrete participation of Ford Foundation in the life of Soviet people, let's quote www.fordfound.org/: “From 1950 Ford Foundation began to support projects oriented to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. From 1950 to 1988 about $ 60 million had been granted to analyze key problems of interrelations between East and West, defending freedom of speech, cultural pluralism and human rights. In 1989 the Board of Trustees of the Foundation took a decision to support directly (!) progressive organizations in the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary (later in Czechoslovakia) to precipitate the process of democratization and economical reforming of these countries. In 1989-1994 about $ 30 million had been granted to work out these problems”.
According to my calculations, in 2001 Ford Foundation financed 21 Russian Human Rights organizations with a total sum of about 5 million dollars. Moscow “Memorial” received the biggest grant to buy a building for its headquarters in the center of Moscow. “Memorial” was also granted with $ 1,5 million for its investigations. Other organizations were financed with smallest sums:
-         Moscow Helsinki Group – 70.000 dollars
-         Helsinki Human Rights Foundation – 100.000 dollars
-         Perm Center – 140.000 dollars
-         International Human Rights League – 100.000 dollars
-         Human Rights Center “Memorial” (the same, but granted for other purposes) – 400.000 dollars
-         Non-governmental Committee on Human Rights (Krasnoyarsk) – 30.000 dollars
-         Independent Council for Legal Examination – 116.000 dollars.
In 2002 total sum of grants was reduced (from $ 850 million to $ 590 million), but in Russia 17 organizations including the same “Memorial” and International Helsinki federation (IHF) received grants of Ford Foundation.
The activities of MacArthur Foundation are highly intensive in Russia. In January, 2003 this foundation “announced financing of development and reinforcement of regional human rights organizations' network” in 13 cities of Russia. For example, one of these grants ($ 140.000) was intended to finance Perm non-governmental Center for Supporting Youth Democratic Initiatives to provide legal aid to young men “refusing military service for religious and moral reasons”. It's easy to realize that these “moral reasons” not to serve in the army can appear in minds of many young men, espesially if they know that an American philanthropic organization with its annual budget of $ 175 million will plead for them.

FINANCIAL AND INVESTMENT COMPANIES' FUNDS

Russian human rights activists receive a powerful backing from those economical and political structures which are interested in creation in Russia favorable conditions to carry out non-controlled by the government financial and currency speculations. In the first place – from traditionally liberal and cosmopolitan transnational Jewish financial capital granting such organizations as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Helsinki Federation and International Human Rights League. Cosmopolitan by nature, Jewish speculative capital is more than others interested in economical and political globalization and creation of international and transgovernmental institutions restricting sovereignty of nations and giving them an opportunity for free circulation of their capitals over the whole world including Russia.
To let the reader understand what money and, accordingly, what scale of “operations to create conditions” is mentioned, we'll cite the materials of the analysis of American press and Internet information: about 20 % of 450 richest people of the world having more than $ 1 billion of personal capital are the speculators who had gained their riches in financial and investment spheres. Their total personal capital is more than 200 billion dollars. As to their finance capital managing by bankers-billionaires, it is estimated at dozens of trillions dollars.
It's necessary to mark Open Society Institute of George Soros, an American billionaire that often tries to look like a “benefactor” and a “philanthropist”. Created by him worldwide (especially in Europe and former Soviet republics) network of organizations has absolutely definite purposes – creation of social and political structures of future “open society”, the dream of George Soros. In Yugoslavia these human rights organizations and so-called “civic groups” had been the centers of forming and consolidation of anti-governmental parties and structures which played the key role in organization of the putsch that lead to overthrow of the government of Slobodan Milosevic, to liquidate the rest of the social state and to integrate Serbia politically into so-called “western community”.
The goals of Soros foundation in Russia were not long ago described by fired (by the words of Soros, for collaboration with B. A. Berezovsky) biologist Alexander Goldfarb, the manager of Russian branch of the Foundation, who had emigrated from the Soviet Union at the end of 70s: “I had been worked with George for almost ten years; I had spent $ 130 million of his money for charitable projects intended to support reforms in Russia and to relieve transformation of a communist dictature into liberal democracy, to transform closed society into open...” (“The end of the belle epoque”, www.grani.ru/). I.e. the goal of charity of the billionaire is not to support Russian science and education (as propagandized by its liberal heralds) but to support civilizational transformations in Russia: creation of western-type “liberal democracy” and non-government-controlled market economy (open society).
Being well educated and understanding the key role of information technologies and science in modern world George Soros bent his finances and every effort to the institutes where future elite of the cosmopolitan “open society” is formed. From $ 56 million invested in Russia in 2000, Soros spent $ 18 million to create and support controlled by him information network; $ 9,5 million was granted the development of “right' educational systems; $ 5 million – to support “liberal” newspapers and TV; $ 4,5 million – to support cultural development etc. ...
The book published in 1990 written by George Soros is named “Opening the Soviet System”. In it Soros stated his political principles and the strategy of creating in “closed”, i.e. “non-western” countries structures that would assist transnational financial corporations in their speculative operations.
The ultimate aim of George Soros is the creation of “the coalition of open societies that will take upon itself the functions of UN and will turn the General Assembly into the true legislative power supporting international law” (quoted from the address of George Soros to the session of the Council for Foreigh Relations of the US Congress, December 10, 1998).

GOVERNMENTAL FUNDS

The most popular among Russian human rights activists “governmental” fund is National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It was established by the President of the USA Ronald Reagan in 1983 with its annual budget of 30 million dollars. NED formulated its mission: “to support establishing and development of democracy worldwide”.
There are 26 members at the Board of Directors of NED: congressmen, businessmen, former politicians. I'll list some of their names: Vin Weber, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NED, a former congressman, now the Vice-president of Clark and Weinstock Bank; Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Commander-in-Chief of NATO, who had led NATO agression against Yugoslavia; Ralf Gerson, a billionaire, the President of Guardian International Corp.; Frank Carlucci, a former Secretary of Defense, now the President of Carlyle Group (Investment); Morton Abramowitz, a former Reagan's advisor, now the Chairman of International Crisis Center (ICC) and Lee H. Hamilton, a former senator, now a member of the Presidential National Security Council.
The member of the Board of Directors of NED Julie Finley, the founder of US NATO Committee and the Chairman of the Project on Transitional Democracies has been working in NED for many years. This Project, realized under cover of NED, strives for “acceleration of reformation processes” in former socialist countries and “reduction of terms of integration of these countries into EEC and NATO”. Within this Project NED financed Yugoslavian anti-governmental youth organization “Otpor” (in 2001 NED granted “Otpor” with 220 000 $) and regularly conducted seminars and other organizing measures for its members. I would remind you that “Otpor” grour took the main part in preparing and conducting putsch in Serbia (October 5, 2000) that caused the dismissal of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.
The purpose of financing Russian “grant-eaters” (the term was offered by Rostov human rights activist E. V. Finkov) (www.rrpoi.narod.ru) was expressed clearly by the leaders of NED: “to help receivers of our grants in their struggle against authoritarian tendencies and for more freedom and openness”. According to this leading instructions in 2000 NED granted 38 Russian non-governmental organizations with total of about 1 300 000 dollars. Just less than a half of this sum, 600 thousand $, was granted to support 16 human rights organizations and publications. For example, to support frankly anti-Russian and pro-American “Express – Khronika” weekly edition (A. P. Podrabinek) NED granted 70 thousand dollars. “Fond Zaschity Glasnosti” (Foundation for Defense of Glasnost”, Sergei Grigoryantz) was granted with 40,7 thousand $ “to publish several books on freedom of the press” in Russia. At the same time only 65 thousand dollars were granted to support Chechen refugees in Ingushetia and Russian migrants in Central Russia.
In 2002 NED granted 33 Russian human rights organization with total sum of about 1,4 million dollars. Among these grants – 36,5 thousand $ for the Center for Development and Human Rights “to estimate the draft laws from the standpoint of human rights defense and to work out the recommendations how to answer effectively to these laws”. It's evident that American congressmen highly attended to problems connected with compulsory military service in Russia.

CONCLUSION

By force of “inclusion” of Russian human rights groups into the “net” woven by American (in the main) organizations, there's no reason to be surprized when you hear that many Russian human rights activist considered themselves members of world (it's more correct to say “western”) human rights movement. They conduct a “human rights policy” which doesn't contradict the one of their western “fraternal” organizations and which is shared by leaders of funds financing Russian human rights activists.
Dependence of human rights movement from western funds and institutions that finance it causes subordination of human rights principle to concrete political goals of western powers, in particular, USA. Some Russian human rights activists understand this. A. O. Smirnov (Kosterin), a human rights activist who had already been cited by me before, wrote: “the West invested in our democracy for its own purposes. This investment is long-term but profitable – to remove the Evil Empire from the map of the world, to civilize it for troubleless life, business and policy of the West” (www.hro.org/ngo/research/). For this purpose it's necessary to make it weak-willed, not dangerous and spiritually crushed. This has only one meaning – to destroy it.

Oleg Popov

26 / 01 / 2005

Sacred Sound And Sheer Beauty

September 6, 2007
In 1917, the workers' paradise that was the Soviet Union forcibly removed the monks of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery and converted the 14th-century building into a torture chamber, sending the residents either to prison camp or death for living their lives according to the word of God. Not until 1994 was the place re-established as a religious institution and the present a cappella choir founded.

Concert at Avery Fishery Hall, photo by Michael Rodionov / Pravoslavie.Ru

On the occasion of the reunification of the Orthodox Church within Russia to the greater Russian Orthodox Church, the 41-member choir is touring the world, singing primarily in sacred spaces but also taking some time out for public concerts. On Tuesday evening at Avery Fisher Hall, there was no room left for procrastinators, and the management had to provide seats on the stage to accommodate the overflow crowd.
English was clearly not the first language of most of these listeners, and there were more than a few hirsute men wearing flowing black robes. What they experienced was a thrilling evening of highly disciplined music making. The sacred side was represented by chants that ran the gamut from ancient to modern. «Stichera on the Dormition of Theotokos» was an extended plain-chant, while «Now the Powers of Heaven» was dramatically ethereal, and featured a truly impressive ensemble sound with eloquent crescendos.

Concert at Avery Fishery Hall, photo by Michael Rodionov / Pravoslavie.Ru

«God Is With Us» had a 19th-century feel to it, with dramatic twists and turns like a sacred piece by Rossini or Verdi, while Piotr Dinev's «It Is Truly Meet» harkened back to that timeless, hollow sound that, as a non-Russian, I can only compare to groundings in art, such as the music of the Old Believers in Modest Mussorgsky's «Khovanchina.» Certainly there was a palpable sense of holiness that recalled many generations of martyrs.
But the other side of the same kopeck was revealed in the folk song set. «The Steppe So Wide» was deliciously mysterious, conjuring images of wolves and whiteouts, placing an individual man as but a lonely shadow or prey item. In fact, several of these numbers chilled to the bone.
For sheer beauty, it was difficult to beat «Evening Bells,» a ballad that channeled Rachmaninov with a sweet tenor solo by Andrey Bashkov. For poignancy, there was «Spring Shall Come, But Not for Me,» a Cossack pre-battle song. There were also those martial ditties with strong equestrian backgrounds such as «The Battalion Has Arrived» and songs of such infectious exuberance as the Ukrainian «Oh, to the Hills,» that made whistling seem appropriate. All were led with great skill and marvelous panache by conductor Nikon Zhila. The two most satisfying efforts were in this folk session. «Down the Mother Volga,» with its huge scope and superb blending, filled the cavernous hall with camaraderie and showcased this choir's ability to produce not only one extraordinary sound but also to disclose each and every element of it, from high tenor to incredibly low bass. «The Steppe Is All Around» was also deeply moving, primarily for the operatic solo of Dmitri Beloselsky, who, if not for his higher calling, would make for a terrific Boris next door at the Metropolitan Opera.
Sadly, the evening was marred by literally dozens of cell phone rings, which, rather uncharacteristically, did not become rarer as the night wore on. But for those who came for a taste of home, not even technological rudeness could ruin such a special event.

Fred Kirshnit

The New York Sun

07 / 09 / 2007

And the raven shall scatter your bones …

Tuesday September 11, 2007
It's 6pm at Moscow's Sretensky Monastery and the faithful are arriving for prayer. Inside the church, women wearing headscarves genuflect beneath a vast altar as an orthodox priest in black rectangular headgear waves incense. Hundreds of candles illuminate the ancient frescoes.

Sretensky monastery choir at its home base. Photo by M. Rodionov / Pravoslavie.Ru

Up in the gallery, a group of young men are standing round sheets of music. Several are dressed in seminarians' robes; others wear denim jackets. One has a ponytail. Three have beards. Their average age is about 23. They seem much like any other choir – until they open their mouths. What emerges is a wave of extraordinary sound: rich, gripping, melodic, powerful and utterly unfeigned. It's the sort of sound you might expect had the early apostles suddenly broken off from writing the New Testament and burst into song. Down below, the priest responds in resonant baritone; the glorious exchanges waft heavenwards.
That this choir is so good is not an accident. As the monastery's youthful abbot, Father Tikhon, points out, it is made up of the “best voices in Moscow”, many from elite musical academies, and has a growing international reputation. Earlier this month, the Sretensky choir embarked on a world tour, singing in New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Sydney, Melbourne, Geneva and Berlin. The tour climaxes with a London performance on September 30. Reviews have so far been gushing. The 41 singers have mastered “the dense, nasal tone and luminous blend characteristic of Russian choral tradition”, the New York Times noted. It called one hymn, Now the Powers of Heaven, “achingly lovely”, and praised tenor soloist Anton Sergeev for his “dreamy ardour”. The audience, including many gentlemen in clerical robes, “appeared to be ready to listen all night long”.
As well as bolstering the choir's reputation, the tour will introduce western audiences to an unusual range of Russian songs, both secular and religious, including a memorable Cossack meditation on the meaning of death. The programme also includes a few ancient Byzantine and classical liturgical pieces. But most of the performance isn't religious as such, being made up of Russian folk-singing.
“There is a sacred aspect to Russian folk songs – they are often about death and suffering,” Father Tikhon explains, over a pot of tea in his comfortable residence. “One piece, The Black Raven, is a sort of dialogue with death. It's about a Cossack soldier going off to battle knowing he is going to die. He speaks of how a bullet will pierce his chest, how his comrades will leave him, and how his wife will marry his best friend. His bones will be scattered across the steppe by wolves and ravens.”

Bass soloist D. Beloselsky is singing “Brothers, It's Good to Live”

Isn't this rather depressing? “Not at all. It's about victory over death,” Father Tikhon says. “It's not pessimistic. There is no depression involved. It's an extremely realistic view of life and death – if you believe in God.” He adds: “There is a rich tradition in Russia of romances and songs, especially in Soviet times when church music was forbidden. In an atheistic regime, prayerful feelings are sublimated into music.”
The choir's 40-odd singers are all gifted young professionals. Some are seminarians studying to become priests; as well as singing for several hours a day, they listen to lectures by outside professors, take ecclesiastic lessons, and tend the monastery's bucolic gardens. Others are students at the Moscow conservatory and other elite musical academies. One, Fyodor, is a talented composer. All are orthodox believers.
Sitting on a garden bench outside the monastery's white-painted, multi-domed church, choir member Roman Alexandrovich Rodionov says he took up singing at the age of 10. A choirmaster in his hometown of Oryol spotted his talent. “He started teaching me to sing,” Roman, now 19, says. Why does he think the choir is so good? “Well, a lot of singers are graduates of the most famous music schools in Moscow,” he says. “But it's also down to God's help. Before and after every rehearsal we sing a prayer.”
Asked whether they would like to spend an extra day in Paris or an extra day in London, the choir unanimously chose London. Several, it turns out, are fans of Sherlock Holmes. “When I hear the word London, I immediately think of red buses, Big Ben and tea with milk,” Roman says. “When I was at school, I never dreamed I would ever go there.”
In fact, the Sretensky monastery singers are a well-travelled bunch. They have already sung at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris as well as at the Vatican Hall auditorium and in Belgrade. They frequently take part in services in Moscow conducted by Russia's Patriarch, His Holiness Alexei II, at the Dormition cathedral, an exquisite 15th-century church inside the high walls and forbidding towers of the Kremlin.
The tour isn't about selling CDs, although the choir has produced several, but about the reunification of Russia's divided orthodox church. In May, the church inside Russia was reunited with the Russian orthodox church abroad, a ground-breaking event marking the end of nine decades of division triggered by the Bolshevik revolution. (The church inside the country had reluctantly recognised the new communist government; the church abroad never did.) As well as the concerts, the choir will take part in services in orthodox churches around the world celebrating this.
Founded in the 14th century, the Sretensky monastery reflects Russia's entire history: wars and revolutions, fiery prayer and unbridled militant atheism. After the 1917 revolution, the new government installed a pro-communist sect in the buildings. In 1925 it was closed. The monastery's superior, Archbishop Hilarion, was sent off to a gulag where he perished. In the 1930s, officers belonging to Stalin's secret police were billeted here, and numerous executions were carried out in the monastery's leafy grounds. The church got its buildings back in 1991; the choir was formed three years later.
Today, the monastery is an oasis of tranquillity in the centre of brash, capitalist Moscow. Outside, young women wearing designer sunglasses nudge absurdly large black Jeeps through traffic-choked avenues. According to Father Tikhon, though, despite such ostensible Godlessness, the Russian orthodox church is now enjoying a remarkable renaissance in Russia, with 500 churches in Moscow, compared to 40 in the 1980s.
At the church, the last worshippers are crossing themselves and preparing to head home. Another reason the choir is so good, Father Tikhon says, is that they are not interested in worldly success or money. “It's like early Christianity, like apostolic times,” he says. “The most important thing in life is their belief in God. They see the world as it is. But they can live in the world and still retain their Christianity”.

The Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir is at the Cadogan Hall, London, on September 30. Box office: 020-7730 4500.

Luke Harding

The Guardian

13 / 09 / 2007

суббота, 11 августа 2012 г.

четверг, 21 июля 2011 г.