Recordings

``Heart of Russia,'' Vladimir Chamber Choir (reviewed in cassette tape form). The Vladimir Chamber Choir of the Soviet Union, which visited this country last year under the auspices of the Seattle Peace Chorus, has released a tape called ``Heart of Russia'' that's a tuneful souvenir of the 1989 visit. With Eduard Markin, the choir's founder and conductor, the chorus performs traditional folk music, sacred selections and three contemporary pieces (from V. Gavrilin's ``The Chimes'') in its very virtuosic style and wide compass.

Some of the music sounds like traditional church music with a distinctive Russian flavor in the harmonies; there's a lot of variety in the textures and forms, from slow and mournful chorales to extremely fleet passage work (the ``Svadebnyi Kontsert,'' an anonymous 17th-century piece, is particularly interesting).

There are very high sopranos and very deep basses, and all kinds of voices in between; director Markin favors the long, seamless line (achieved by ``staggered breathing''), and he knows how to invest the music with a dramatic pause, a sudden hush, an emphatic crescendo. The singers create a number of intriguing effects, such as the imitation of strummed balalaikas and the humorous glissandos and witty cacophony in the Gavrilin excerpts.

Like many a cappella choruses, however, this one isn't immune to sagging pitch; intonation is not the strong point of the Vladimir Chamber Choir. And those for whom a smooth, homogeneous blend is an important attribute of choral singing will have their expectations overturned by this recording: This chorus is full of strongly individualized, plangent voices, and you can really hear those voices sticking out, especially at the higher volume levels and upper registers. But there also is a great deal of personality in this singing, and there's a lively conviction in the musical interpretations.

``Heart of Russia'' is available in cassette tape form from several local retailers. If you have trouble finding it, call Golden Ring Productions, 236-5282.

Bach: St. Matthew Passion, John Eliot Gardiner conducting (Archiv). A splendid new recording of one of Bach's most famous works, this one features the English Baroque Soloists with John Eliot Gardiner and an array of very fine soloists. One of those is soprano Ann Monoyios, who raised eyebrows last fall at a Seattle Symphony baroque concert with her beautiful ease of tone production and her technical fluency (both attributes highly in evidence on this recording). Monoyios shares the soprano solos with Barbara Bonney; the alto soloist is the excellent Anne Sofie von Otter, and the men (Michael Chance, Howard Crook, Olaf Bar and Cornelius Hauptmann) are uniformly fine.

Anthony Rolfe Johnson is an expressive, subtle Evangelist; the mellow-voiced Andreas Schmidt sings Jesus' lines with great depth and musicality. Gardiner's varying of textures - from the almost transparent recitatives to the more densely orchestrated choruses (the Monteverdi Choir and London Oratory Junior Choir) - makes the most of his early-instrument resources.

Local fans of Northwest native Janet See will note her fluent and fluid playing as principal flute of one of the two orchestras (the English Baroque Soloists are divided for this work).

The liner notes have a particularly interesting feature: Gardiner's theory of dividing the Passion into scenes, each of which has a narrative concluded by a response (either an aria or a chorale). Lucidly explained and logically argued, this theory may give the long work a new coherence for many listeners.

- Melinda Bargreen