MOSCOW, May 2 (RIA Novosti, Olga Lipich) - The choir of St. Nicholas' Cathedral, at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, has set out on a week-long European tour ahead of the 60th V-E anniversary. The tour, called "Journey of Memory," will include commemorative recitals in Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, and Prague-cities liberated by the Soviet army on its way to the Nazi Germany's citadel, Berlin.
The project, organized by RIA Novosti in association with the Moscow Patriarchy and the Russian Foreign Ministry, has received the blessing of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia.
Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchy's Exterior Relations Department, said he was hopeful that the forthcoming recitals in Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague would draw large audiences and that local residents would use the occasion to pay their homage to the Soviet soldiers who had sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Europe from Nazi invaders. According to Chaplin, the project is about commemoration through art and prayer.
One of the program's highlights will be Sergei Rachmaninoff's 'The All-Night Vigil,' composed during the First World War. This year marks the 90th anniversary of "The Vigil," a recognized masterpiece of Russian church music, said Alexei Puzakov, Artistic Director of the Choir of St. Nicholas' Cathedral. According to him, the work's central motifs include the Cross and the Resurrection, so emotionally, it is very much in tune with the spring of 1945.
Also on the program are Easter hymns and popular wartime songs. The choir, forty vocalists strong, will be singing a capella.
The largest cathedrals of the four European capitals have been chosen as the most suitable venues for the Russian church choir's performances. The first recital is to be held in Budapest's Orthodox Cathedral of Our Lady's Assumption. In Vienna and Prague, the choir will be performing in Catholic cathedrals while in Bratislava, it will sing in an evangelical cathedral.
Admission to all the recitals will be free.
During its forthcoming European tour, the choir of St. Nicholas' Cathedral will take part in commemorative services at memorials to Soviet liberators in the capitals of Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic.
