UK premiere for Steinberg's Passion Week

Until recently Maximilian Steinberg's Passion Week (written in 1923) was all but forgotten, but now choirs are rediscovering it. Steinberg was a pupil of Rimsky Korsakov; both Steinberg and Stravinsky were class-mates, in fact Steinberg became very close to Rimsky Korsakov, marrying his daughter Nadezhda. But at the revolution Stravinsky left whilst Steinberg stayed. He only became interested in sacred music rather late, and Passion Week was written for Mikhail Klimov and the Imperial Court Capella (renamed Petrograd People's Choral Academy), but shortly after completing the work came a total ban on sacred music.

The work has now been recorded twice, and the recording by Steven Fox (an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music) and the Clarion Choir on Naxos is being celebrated with a performance of Steinberg's Passion Week by Steven Fox and the Clarion Choir, at the Dukes Hall, Royal Academy of Music on Sunday 30 October 2016 at 5pm. This will be the work's UK premiere and follows the choir giving the work's Russian premiere in St Petersburg on 25 October 2016.

Full details from the Royal Academy of Music website.