The Metropolitan Choir Performed Hymns to the Music of the Great Russian Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at the Sunday Liturgy in the Ascension Cathedral of Almaty

The creation of a unified set of hymns for the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, represents the first bold endeavor by a prominent secular composer to compose an entirely original musical setting for the Orthodox liturgy. The composer himself admitted that this work was an attempt to restore the distinctive character of Russian church music, which had been forcibly altered. In this music, Tchaikovsky sought to convey his deeply religious and emotional experience of the key moments of the service. He once wrote, “I feel that I am beginning to know how to love God, which I did not know before. I often find indescribable delight in bowing before the incomprehensible but, to me, indisputable Wisdom of God. I often pray to Him with tears, asking for humility and love, for His forgiveness and guidance, but above all, it is sweet for me to say to Him: ‘Lord, may Your will be done,’ for I know that His will is holy.” Annually, Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy was performed at the Church of the Great Ascension near the Nikitsky Gates in Moscow and was similarly observed in Saint Petersburg at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra Cathedral, where the composer was laid to rest. The Liturgy by Tchaikovsky is rarely performed even in concert form today. The renowned choir of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” on Ordynka Street in Moscow, under the direction of N.V. Matveyev, revived the old tradition of the Synodal Choir by performing this piece by Tchaikovsky annually on the anniversary of the composer’s death.