New To Me Music

Had an interesting little nugget of enlightenment in Church yesterday morning - the offertory anthem was by one Alexander Gretchaninov, a Russian-born composer who studied under Rimsky-Korsokov and later came to the West.

I'd never even heard of the man. But the anthem - "Adore Almighty God" - was really rather nice. Surprisingly conservative and very Western in form, except that it had a curious little flare every now and again that gave it a slightly exotic feel. Not Russian per se, but just a bit different from what you'd expect from something out of the standard canon.