From historical point of view the repertoire for the academic chorus basically had been formed only after the serfdom abolition. On a boundary of XIX and XX centuries Sergey Taneev composed tops of the secular repertoire (cantatas “John Damaskin” and “After psalm reading”), later Sergey Rahmaninov composed the spiritual “Night service” and “Liturgy”. I used some tricks to include Rakhmaninov's “Joann Zlatoust Liturgy” into the choir repertoire. So, the first performance of this composition was announced in the program as “Seven choruses, орus 31”. And only later, when the composition was performed many times and became popular, its original name was returned to it. The revolution of 1917 interrupted the repertoire traditions. For a long period there were no composers interested in high predestination of choral art. Only after 50 years Sviridov and Gavrilin appeared on the stage. Тaneev, Rahmaninov, Sviridov, Gavrilin created original masterpieces in the choral genre. Their compositions are musical tops which took the special place in our repertoire and in our chorus life.

We are obliged to G.Sviridov very much as our chorus was established thanks to him. And due to his assistance our chorus became professional. We sang his compositions from the very beginning. Our performing style had been generated on the basis of his compositions. Sviridov's music took the special place in the repertoire of the Moscow chamber chorus because our constant cooperation with the author for many years resulted not only in deeper penetration into essence of his compositions, but also has allowed us to comprehend the main thing — unique Sviridov's intonation. We remember with pleasure the period of joint rehearsals, hot discussions, searches, success and afflictions …