Praise the Lord from the Heavens

Alexander Gretchaninoff composed four complete settings of the Divine Liturgy. His first Liturgy, opus 13, dates from 1898 and represents the composer’s first foray into the realm of Orthodox liturgical music. In terms of style it closely follows the model of Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom, composed twenty years earlier.  Like Tchaikovsky before him, Gretchaninoff composes an extended musical setting of the Sunday Communion Hymn, Praise the Lord from the heavens, but instead of resorting to imitative counterpoint, Gretchaninoff relies chiefly on repetition of colorful harmonies to paint an ethereal heavenly vision.