That Mighty Russian Sound, by the Chorovaya Akademia

Ideologically tainted during the Soviet era, the treasures of Russian liturgical music literally went unsung for decades. The loosening of Soviet cultural leashes and the widespread interest in the modal, spiritual music of many heritages have combined to create previously unlikely successes such as the Chorovaya Akademia, which returned to Southern California Sunday for a lively and inspiring matinee performance in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Founded 10 years ago in Moscow by Alexander Sedov, the Chorovaya Akademia is a 16-voice male a cappella choir of eclectic bent--sort of a Russian version of Chanticleer, transposed down an octave. The chorus came to broad international recognition in 1995 with the release of its “Ancient Echoes” recording and made its local debut in Los Angeles in 1997.

Though not a liturgical choir such as Arte Corale, its hometown colleagues, the Chorovaya Akademia is avidly involved with Russian Orthodox music, going so far as to perform sacred music in facsimiles of the vestments worn by the Moscow Synodal Choir in about 1900. The first half of the program Sunday was devoted to Rachmaninoff’s 1910 “Liturgy of St. John Crysostom,” truncated and arranged for men’s voices by Sedov.

This is music less profound and less intense, perhaps, than Rachmaninoff’s better-known Vespers, but it is neither insubstantial nor insincere. Rather, this is affecting music of great immediacy and impact, particularly as sung with the granitically rooted strength of the Chorovaya Akademia. Working from memory, Sedov shaped its deep tides and volcanic explosions with expressive assurance.

The choristers produced rafter-rattling sound--not that the ceiling is all that much of a reach in Founders Hall--anchored, as expected, by resonantly focused basses. Happily, they also maintain balance, pitch and thrust at softer levels and sang with graceful nuance as well as the wonted muscular edge.

The tuxedo half of the concert featured folk song arrangements and imitations along boisterous Red Army Chorus lines, hearty whether in sorrow or whimsy. The most imposing of the solos, in duration and in heft, was bass Nikolai Konovalov’s sly, wry account of “From Under the Oak, From Under the Elm.” There were also Sergei Taneyev’s virtuosically murmurous “Apparitions” and a few European part songs, including Saint-Saens’ skittish “Serenade d’hiver”--in Russian--and Schubert’s “Wein und Liebe.”

In encore, the Chorovaya Akademia turned to an American child of Russian emigres, with Gershwin’s “Clap Yo’ Hands,” energetically game and endearing.