With hushed chanting the male voices of the Sretensky Monastery Choir drew the audience in, forcing them to settle in and listen closely, before the singers bloomed into a powerful crescendo. The choir of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery is known for its sound, and the visceral fortissimos delivered in Adelaide’s Town Hall, as part of the Adelaide Festival, didn’t disappoint.

The Sretensky Monastery Choir

The first half of the program reflected its ecclesiastical roots, drawing on the Russian Orthodox hymns and chants of the choir’s 600-year history. The radiance of the “Hallelujah”s of the opening chant, Now All the Heavenly Powers (harmonised by Grigory Lvovsky) set the tone, the a cappella choir achieving a sound not unlike that of a church organ, but with a slightly raw, earthy quality underpinned by the deep growl of the basses. While entries and chord changes weren’t always pristine, the choir made up for any blemishes in ensemble work with the incredible energy they brought to the music. With the muscular strength of the choir so often on show, softer moments – like Rachmaninov’s The Hail Mary Prayer (in an arrangement by Dmitry Lazarev) – brought sonic relief (though few numbers were...