Любовь святая. Holy Love (composed by Georgi Sviridov, words by Aleksei Tolstoy)

This is one of the most moving and tragic pieces in the Russian choral literature. One could say that it is Sviridov’s “requiem” for all those who perished in the Bolshevik repressions. Usually it is sung with a mixed chorus, with the solo taken by a soprano, but, this recording uses a male chorus (the “Optyna Pustyn” Male Chorus from Russia) with a counter-tenor soloist (Dmitri Popov). The background vocals appear to transposed down a fifth in comparison with the mixed choir version.

Originally, this was written as incidental music to a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, it was the only way that such music could be written in the Soviet period.

The words are simple:

Thou art Holy Love,
From the beginning, thou wert persecuted,
Covered in blood.
Thou art Holy Love.

Spare a prayer for the millions lost in the repressions. Vechnaya Pamyat.

Reason for Worry

The Pentagon is stricken with panic. Dark clouds have gathered in the sky over a programme which has, for a quarter of a century now, been generating billions upon billions of dollars for those whom the great President Dwight D. Eisenhower described as the military-industrial complex of America. President-elect Barack Obama refrained from pledging continued action under what is known as the Strategic Defence Initiative. He chose words with utmost care every time he would mention that pet project of his predecessors in the course of his electoral campaign. He said the Strategic Defence Initiative had a right to live if it could prove its effectiveness. That he sticks to that position was confirmed by his aide Denis McDonough. According to Mr McDonough, President-elect Obama wants the new technologies to prove their effectiveness. The director of the Washington-headquartered Antimissile Defence Agency, Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering, was quick to say that existing plans for antimissile defence are feasible and that he will let Mr Obama know this.

I cannot help noticing that a fairly vague word, “feasible”, was used by the definitely-annoyed Lieutenant General Obering. The director of the American antimissile defence programme refrained from the use of stronger words. It was not that this high-ranking member of the outgoing Administration was afraid of saying the wrong thing to supposedly change-hungry Mr Obama. It is because the Pentagon is still looking for a way to prove it has made good use of the decades of painstaking efforts and enormous allocations for its highly-ambitious strategic defence initiative. It is looking for a way to prove that the United States has an impenetrable antimissile umbrella.

Ronald Reagan got used to the idea of “Star Wars” in Hollywood, and the great physicist Edward Teller convinced him of the feasibility of a star wars project. The Strategic Defence Initiative was launched in 1983, but, Professor Teller would soon see he had made a mistake. An honest scholar, he tried to talk President Reagan out of the highly-demanding project. He tried hard, but, got nowhere. The Strategic Defence Initiative landed in the lap of military-industrial corporations, which were only too happy to sign up for it.

Fifty celebrated scholars of America, Nobel Prize winners, all of them, tried to use the combined weight of their distinguished personal records in an effort to ditch the ineffective and highly-dangerous Strategic Defence Initiative. They wrote to tell the White House that “no technology exists that would enable the kill vehicle to keep ahead of improvements to offensive weapons… Even if the next planned test of the proposed anti-ballistic missile system works as planned, any movement toward deployment would be premature, wasteful, and dangerous”. Apparently, the American Nobel Prize winners had every reason to say what they said.

The latest economic developments show that an integral and highly important element of the arms race, which was re-started by the Bush Administration, the antimissile defence programme, weighs down as an unbearable burden on the economy of the United States of America. Attempts to spread the arms race to outer space and plans for the opening of new missile bases explain the latest turn to the worse in international relations. This is what the fifty prize-winning scholars talked about eight years ago.

But, the White House has, in defiance of facts and the elements, been forcing the Pentagon to hold one antimissile test after another. Most of those tests were anything but successful, which brought celebrated physicist Andrew Sessler and other highly-qualified experts to declare that the system in question would, if it ever got fielded, prove dysfunctional.

The arrogant stubbornness of Washington, which kept pushing on with its pet project, placed a very heavy and incessantly-growing burden on the American economy. The federal government expects the final cost of its antimissile defence program to top 150 billion dollars (4.189 trillion roubles. 118.455 billion euros. 97.665 billion UK pounds). The federal government repeats what the godfathers of this programme say. But, other knowledgeable people see that far-from-small sum as the tip of the iceberg. They expect the highly-questionable antimissile defence program to cost from 800 billion to 1.2 trillion dollars (22.423 to 33.514 trillion roubles. 632 to 948 billion euros. 522 to 782 billion UK pounds).

That cost estimate gives American policy-makers much food for thought. Alarmed voices were heard on Capitol Hill way before the eruption of the current crisis. It is worth pointing out that the running mate of Barack Obama, Senator Joseph Biden, was one of those to doubt the advisability of additional allocations for the antimissile defence program. Now that the American economy has come to face new problems, it is only natural for increasingly-nervous Americans to start losing confidence in the ruling élite. Now, the Pentagon will hardly be able to dispel people’s fears with convincing figures and argumentation.

28 November 2008

Valentin Zorin

A View from Moscow

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=35727&cid=170&p=28.11.2008 (in English)

Three Guarneri del Gesù Violins were Played in Moscow by Pinchas Zuckerman

Those who filled the seats in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on Saturday evening, 29 November, enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and hear three 250-year-old violins made by the famous Italian master Guarneri del Gesù. These three “heroines” of the evening were played by the famous virtuoso violinist Pinchas Zuckerman. Britain’s celebrated Royal Philharmonic Orchestra provided a lush accompaniment to the three prized instruments crafted by the great 18th century Italian luthier.

This unforgettable concert was the brainchild of Maksim Viktorov, a young Moscow lawyer, violin collector, philanthropist, and the president of the Investment Programmes Fund. Mr Viktorov said, “I feel there is a certain message Guarneri del Gesù tried to convey in his instruments. In order to understand this, you have to listen to several such instruments. Just listen to the way his violins sound and you’ll feel this. That’s why I wanted to share this joy with my fellow Muscovites. I hope this musical tribute to Guarneri del Gesù will become a significant event in the cultural world. Since this is a specific step in advancing our understanding, it shall help us to know what intellectual values we stand for”.

One of the three Guarneri del Gesù violins that was played last night, after almost a century of silence, he recently bought at Sotheby’s. It was made in 1741 and later belonged to Henri Vieuxtemps, the Belgian composer and violin prodigy, who was a court soloist to Tsar Aleksandr II. The second Guarneri violin played that night was courtesy of Japan’s Musical Foundation, represented by Mrs Kazuki Shiomi. That instrument was once played by the great Eugene Izai.

The third Guarneri belongs to Pinchas Zuckerman himself. “If violins could talk, they would tell us many interesting stories. The soul of the great master who built them lives in these instruments”, Maestro Zuckerman said. He added that the Moscow public just loved the concept! Maestro Zuckerman is ready to take part in ever-new projects on the Moscow stage.

The three violins played on Saturday night were made within a year of each other, from the same wood. “These violins are sisters, and they met again in Moscow after more than 250 years”, Mr Viktorov said.

30 November 2008

Natalia Viktorova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=91212&cid=24&p=30.11.2008 (in Russian)

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=35806&cid=62&p=30.11.2008 (in English)

Sevastopol Residents Smash Pro-NATO Billboards

Sevastopol, 29 November 2008 (RIA-Novosti):

Residents of the Crimean city of Sevastopol destroyed billboards put up by the Ukrainian government to promote NATO membership, a RIA-Novosti correspondent said Saturday. A campaign urging people to support the country’s bid for NATO membership started in 40 towns of the Crimean Peninsula on orders from the Foreign Ministry ahead of next month’s NATO session in Brussels. Sevastopol residents are tearing down and splashing paint over posters saying “The Ukraine Plus NATO Equals Security!” and “Next Stop Is NATO!” despite threats from the police to open criminal probes for doing so.

“Propaganda for this aggressive military bloc in a city that hosts the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and where 97 percent of the population are [ethnic] Russians is a political provocation on the part of Kiev”, Vasili Parkhomenko, a local Communist Party leader, said. Organisers said the campaign aims to tell people that NATO is a “peacekeeping organization by no means threatening Russia. We must convey the truth about the alliance to Ukrainians, now that they have chosen the European path”, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. According to opinion polls, most Ukrainians are opposed to joining NATO.

The foreign ministers of the 26 NATO member states will meet in Brussels on 2-3 December to decide whether the Ukraine and Georgia are ready to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). NATO refused at its summit in April to let Georgia and the Ukraine into the MAP, a key step towards membership of the alliance, but, promised to review the decision in December. The countries received strong US backing for their bids.

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20081129/118610677.html (in English)

Editor’s Note:

It is obvious that the Orangies are failing to “sell” NATO to the “Ukrainian” populace. When one considers that only a minority of the population speaks “Ukrainian” regularly, and that a majority speak Russian, one can understand the situation readily. Let’s see… Saakashvili went to college in America, and Yushchenko is married to an American woman… add in the loudmouth North American Galician diaspora… stir in a soupçon of Polish fascist Prometheanism from the hand of Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński… it’s quite a devil’s brew, isn’t it? Best to stay away from such and let these kleptocracies rot on the vine, it’s none of America’s concern. We have more pressing matters to attend to at home.

Ministry of Economic Development says that Russia’s GDP shall Grow 3 to 3.5 Percent Next Year

Vienna, 30 November 20085 (RIA-Novosti):

Russia’s GDP is expected to grow 3 to 3.5 percent in 2009 despite declining world oil prices, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said on Sunday.  ”The fall of oil prices to 50 dollars (1,393 roubles. 39 euros. 32.50 UK pounds) per barrel will not generate a crisis. The Russian economy [in 2009] will be able to grow 3 to 3.5 percent and, in 2010, may reach the trend of 5 percent”, Mr Klepach said at a Russian economic and financial forum in Austria. In its transition report, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development revised downwards its GDP growth forecast for Russia in 2009 from 6 percent to 3 percent. The EBRD also predicted that Russia’s GDP was expected to grow 7.3 percent in 2008. The EBRD said the rapidly-declining volumes of liquidity in the Russian financial system coupled with the absence of access to foreign sources of credit were the main sources of danger for Russia’s economic growth. Mr Klepach also said that the average price for Russian Urals crude is expected to be at 50 dollars (1,393 roubles. 39.25 euros. 32.50 UK pounds) per barrel in 2009, 55 dollars (1,533 roubles. 43.25 euros. 35.75 UK pounds) per barrel in 2010, and 60 dollars (1,672 roubles. 47.25 euros. 39 UK pounds) per barrel in 2011.

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081130/118616381.html (in English)

Russia Returns to Latin America

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela (1954- ) (right) with President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- ) (left), at their meeting in Caracas in November 2008

“Russia has returned to Latin America, including Cuba”, President Dmitri Medvedev said in Havana about the results of his five-day tour of the southern continent. On 24-28 November, he went to Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba, visiting more countries in South America than any other Russian leader has gone to in one go. In fact, no other top Russian leader visited Venezuela before. This spurred the optimism of Russia’s experts on Latin America and everyone connected with it in the past decades. They did not expect any Russian leader to say what Medvedev said in Cuba, although they had spent years reminding the Kremlin about the “Latin American comrades”.

The Russian delegation signed the largest number of agreements and memorandums ever, from traditional military and cultural contracts to multilevel agreements on nuclear power generation, joint oil and gas production, construction of tankers, use of high technologies, and establishment of banks. Although very important, they are only part of the evolving picture. Making an effort to reclaim Russia’s position in Latin America is a good start, but the Kremlin will have to work hard to keep it. It is not enough to send Tu-160 strategic bombers, the missile cruiser Pyotr Veliki, or the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko there, even though their joint fire power exceeds that of all South American countries taken together.

“A few Russian ships are not going to change the balance of power”, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when asked about Russian warships off Venezuela during Mr Medvedev’s visit. She is right, although a demonstration of the Russian naval flag was a good thing. An analysis of America’s attitude to Russia’s reviving relations with South America makes an interesting study. For the past two decades, the Americans pretended not to be concerned about Russia’s attention to the continent, and, in particular, its close friendship with Venezuela. They could be irritated by it, but, they were definitely unconcerned.

But, when Mr Medvedev’s trip to Latin America was announced, the US media published articles titled “Russia poses challenge to Obama” and “Russia’s new presence in Latin America”. According to them, Barack Obama is trying to find a way out of the economic crisis and ensure a smooth transition of power in the White House. In principle, he likes Moscow, they wrote, but, is too busy now to give a proper response to the Russians, who took advantage of the situation to stage a provocation in the US backyard. But, Mr Medvedev’s tour was planned long before the 4 November presidential elections in the United States, when nobody could say definitely who would win, McCain or Obama. I don’t see any logic in the media’s hint that Moscow should have waited until Mr Obama assumed office and determined his Latin American policy.

The overall US sentiment is that “the Russians have nothing to do in Latin America”. When all newspapers write the same, it usually means that they were leaked information from the State Department or the White House. This shows that the White House is seriously worried by Russia’s return to Latin America. Besides, diplomats like to present their rivals’ smart moves only as minor achievements, especially when they themselves have missed the chance. The United States will never fully abandon its backyard, because former paratroopers (Venezuela), Native Americans (Bolivia), bishops (Paraguay), the extreme left, or moderately-left politicians will not remain in power forever there. When Washington comes to from the shocks of the elections, the financial crisis, and the nearly total neglect of Latin America under the Bush administration, it will make a U-turn and head back to its southern neighbours. We will find it very hard to withstand its economic and political offensive.

Latin Americans know that life without close ties with the United States will be very difficult despite Russia’s rekindled love. The Kremlin should remember this and plan its strategy in Latin America so as to prevent a repetition of past mistakes, when it jettisoned some friends there, for example, Cuba. Immediately after winning the election, Mr Obama started rethinking US policy regarding Cuba. The latest issue of The Nation carried Sean Penn’s “Conversations with Raul Castro about Obama, Guantánamo, and the Pentagon”. Señor Castro granted the interview to Penn, an old-time Democratic supporter and a personal friend of Mr Obama, long before the November elections. The Cuban leader told him that he would meet with Mr Obama. “We should meet in a neutral place. You asked if I would accept to meet with [Obama] in Washington. I would have to think about it”, he said. So, Mr Obama will most likely re-discover Cuba, because that’s what most Americans, including the Miami Cubans, want. Russia will also have to compete for Cuba’s attention with China, France, Canada, and Spain.

During his Latin American tour, Mr Medvedev spoke about such exotic things as the use of national currencies in Russian-Venezuelan settlements, visa-free travel to Brazil and Venezuela, and Brazilian football schools in Russia. The president was also awarded the two countries’ highest orders. However, his agenda also included much more important issues, and much more serious than sending Russian warships to the continent. Some of them are still on paper, but, if they are implemented, Moscow will surge to the forefront of the global financial scene. The main event happened after Mr Medvedev had arrived in Brazil from Peru, where he announced a decision that can change the BRIC group of Brazil, Russia, India, and China from a banking term into an international organisation, or, at the very least, a consultative forum. President Medvedev said after his meeting with his Brazilian counterpart that Russia would host a BRIC summit in 2009. The BRIC countries are comparable to the European Union economically and financially, and, by far, surpass them in terms of energy resources. So, the world should respect their opinion.

The most important part of Medvedev’s visit to Latin America is that he has made it. Since the beginning of President Gorbachyov’s perestroika, Russia has been trying to forget about Latin America, for some obscure reason, and by doing so, destroyed many achievements scored there by the Soviet Union. Nobody knows how long this unfortunate situation would have lasted if not for George W. Bush, who placed his southern neighbours on ice.

28 November 2008

Aleksei Fedyashin

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20081128/118598833.html (in English)

A New Sun Spells New Trouble?

Our Sun is muscling up again. According to NASA, it is beginning another 11-year cycle of activity. Considering that the Sun is to blame for some unfavourable climate changes on the Earth, the coming decade could spell more trouble for our planet. The first measuring instruments made their appearance 440 years ago. They showed that our nearest star treats the Earth to more than just solar eclipses. Sunspots, solar flares, faculae, and other phenomena affect everything on the Earth from atmospheric events to human behaviour. These phenomena are known collectively as solar activity. This activity, expressing itself through bursts of solar radiation, magnetic storms, or fiery flares, can vary in intensity, from very low to very strong. It is the storms that pose the greatest danger to civilisation.

On 28 August 1859, polar lights glowed and shimmered all over the American continent as darkness fell. Many people thought their city was aflame. The instruments used to record this magnetic fluctuation across the world went off their scales. Telegraph systems malfunctioned, hit by a massive surge in voltage. This was an actual solar storm. Its results for mankind were small, because civilisation had not yet entered a high-tech phase of development. Had something similar happen in our nuclear space age, destruction would have been catastrophic. Meanwhile, according to scientific data, storms of such size occur relatively seldom, once in five centuries. But, events with half the intensity happen every 50 years. The last one took place on 13 November 1960 and disturbed the Earth’s geomagnetic fields, upsetting the operation of radio stations. Now, our dependence on radio electronic devices is so immense that increased solar activity could disable life-support systems all over the world, and not only on the surface.

America has long sounded the alarm, because their continent is so close to the northern magnetic pole and is the most vulnerable to solar activity. A study by the MetaTech Corporation revealed that an impact similar to that of 1859 would incapacitate the entire electricity grid in North America. Even the relatively weak magnetic storm of 1989, provoked by solar activity, caused an accident at a Canadian hydro-electric power plant that left 6 million people in the US and Canada without electric power for nine hours. According to a special report prepared by MetaTech for Congress in 2003, salvage and rescue work to restore power in areas with developed infrastructure could have been launched, according to estimates, only within several weeks or a month.

Poor space weather makes all orbital systems malfunction. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, it costs 100 million dollars (2.788 billion roubles. 78.64 million euros. 65 million UK pounds) per year to repair satellites damaged by solar activity. Satellite insurance companies paid out 2 billion dollars (55.762 billion roubles. 1.573 billion euros. 1.301 billion UK pounds) between 1996 and 2005 to compensate for damage to and loss of spacecraft because of solar effects. A heavy solar storm can cause disruption to space-based navigation systems. Mistakes in coordinate measurements can be as great as 50 metres and more, making a navigation satellite unfit for its mission. A serious loss of accuracy in the GPS Navstar system was recorded during a solar storm on 23 October 2003. The mechanism of solar storms is unlikely to be fully understood anytime soon. On the other hand, space weather is easy to forecast with available equipment. Many years ago, NASA proposed orbiting special probes to monitor space weather. Modern space technology can produce low-priced standardised devices to warn of pending space weather anomalies.

28 November 2008

Andrei Kislyakov

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20081128/118589196.html (in English)

Historian believes that it was Providential That the Church did not recognise the Yekaterinburg Remains In the Early 1990s

President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) bowing before the relics of the imperial family in 1998

Moscow, 27 November 2008 (Interfax):

Sergei Firsov, a Doctor of historical sciences and a professor at St Petersburg State University said it was providential that the Church did not recognise the remains found not far from Yekaterinburg in early 1990s as those of the imperial family. “The second burial site was found not far from the first one. If the Church had recognised the authenticity of the remains in the nineties, then, it would have built a church there and we would have never found the second burial site”, he said during a broadcast on the Grad Petrov internet-radio site. He said, “It is possible to see good in this, even if it is coincidental”. Professor Firsov wrote the preface to the book The Imperial Passionbearers: Their Posthumous Fate (Царственные страстотерпцы. Посмертная судьба) by the historian Natalia Rozanova.

Fragmentary human remains with signs of a violent end of two individuals were found in July 2007, on Old Koptyakovo Road near Yekaterinburg. According to the preliminary data, the remains found were of a boy of 10-14 years-of-age and a young woman of about 20-years-old. At present, the accepted version concerning these remains is that they are of Tsarevich Aleksei Nikolaevich and Grand Princess Maria Nikolaevna, shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Earlier, the remains of Tsar Nikolai II, the other members of the imperial family, and their retinue were discovered buried near the Old Koptyakovo Road in July 1991. Expert analyses conducted as part of a criminal case pursued by the Office of the RF Procurator General confirmed that the remains were those of the imperial family and their retainers. The remains were buried at the Ss Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg on 17 July 1998.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=27504 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Hey, Interfax translator! This is Wally the Big Green Monster and he’s coming after you!

Firstly, its… yes, it is, friends and neighbours… BIG GREEN WEENIE AWARD time again. The Interfax translator left out half of the text. For shame! Interfax is paying this dolt (or dolts, as the case may be) for doing NOTHING. God, that’s a hustle… gotta give ‘em credit for crassness and brass, if nothing else. They must think that no one is going to check on them!

As for the Church not accepting the remains in 1998, I think that it is generally well-known today that the main reason for not doing so was not to queer relations with the ROCOR. It may come out in future that this was a clever ploy suggested by Metropolitan (then, Archbishop) Laurus Skurla to tide things over until the senescent Metropolitan Vitaly Ustinov retired or died (he had to be booted out, albeit it was called a “resignation” publicly). Now, that the reconciliation is a given fact, look for the Church to change its tack and right smartly.

Thanksgiving Day in the USA

27 November marks Thanksgiving Day in the USA, one of the favourites on the list of national holidays. Many Americans refer to the holiday as Turkey Day. Under a tradition that goes back centuries, a roasted turkey is a necessary feature of Thanksgiving in every household. About 50 million turkeys go into the oven on Thanksgiving. So, the holiday makes a great day for turkey farmers. The two fattest birds are spared and become famous all over the country. The solemn ceremony to spare the birds is held by the president on the lawn near the White House. The tradition is all about paying tribute to the turkey, which the local Indians gave to the first settlers, thereby saving them from death of starvation. Springing from this tradition is another one, under which Thanksgiving Day is a time of free meals for the homeless and for the poor distributed by charities with the traditional turkey on the menu. Those willing are encouraged to vary the menu by bringing something from the family table.

A sad fact, but, the number of needy amongst Americans is growing, which has become particularly noticeable in the conditions of the current world crisis. Only this month alone, big companies across the US laid off about 100,000 workers, the largest number in 20 years, so, a record number of Americans had to apply for unemployment benefits. More and more are joining the ranks of more than 10 million unemployed officially registered in America. As small companies shut down, banks are next on the list, with 22 gone bust and over 170 experiencing serious difficulties. Those thinking of themselves as stable have felt the effect of the crisis too. Whilst well-off and rich families can afford turkey and more than one, they had to abandon hopes of getting the habitual end-of-the-year bonuses. Those with a business of their own are afraid of losing it. As a result, moods across the US, even though it’s Thanksgiving, are far from high and are unlikely to change in the near future.

Nearly all countries are now experiencing the same, having found themselves in the clutches of financial crisis. The US, where the crisis started, was hit the worst. As the holiday season comes near, it is clear that there will be fewer presents, particularly if they are expensive. But, the hopes will stay as high as ever and will grow stronger. It’s just in human nature to believe in a better future, no matter what.

27 November 2008

Andrei Ptashnikov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=35676&cid=87&p=27.11.2008 (in English)

Editor’s Note:

I have seen too much bile expressed both in the American media and by certain right-wing individuals against Russia that I feel I must state a “home truth”. Russians do not hate America, nor do they hate Americans. Mr Ptashnikov does not feel that America is evil. He looks to a better future… shouldn’t we do the same? Russia stretches out its hand in genuine friendship… shall you spurn it or shall you grasp it with joy? The choice is yours.

The Pokrov Chamber Chorus shall perform at the Russian Mission of the UN at Geneva

The traditional Christmas-season tour of the Pokrov Chamber Chorus under the direction of Andrei Gorachyov shall start with a concert in Geneva. The members of the UN mission and General Consulate of the RF, the Russian clergy and members of the Russian diaspora in Switzerland, and anyone who is interested in Russian spiritual musical culture are invited to the concert. On the programme shall be Russian church music, Christmas kolyadki (carols), and Russian folk songs. The chorus shall visit the Cathedral of the Elevation of the Holy Cross (ROCOR) in Geneva and the European Broadcasting Union, where the Pokrov chorus is already well-known because of its recordings, which have often been included in projects of the EBU. This is the first visit of the chorus to Geneva, and it was made possible by an invitation from V. V. Loshchinin, the Permanent Representative of the RF to the UN Department in Geneva, and A. G. Lopukhov, the Consul General of the RF in Geneva. The tour of the chorus shall last until 15 December, during which time it shall give 11 concerts in Switzerland and Austria, and it shall also perform after the Divine Liturgy at the Russian Orthodox parish of the Resurrection in Zürich.

28 November 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=91045&cid=24&p=28.11.2008 (in Russian)