TCHAIKOVSKY: “Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.” Svetoslav Obretenov Bulgarian Choir and Soloists, conducted by Georgi Robev. AVZ-3001 (compact disc).

Though Tchaikovsky’s a capella setting, firmly based on traditional liturgical practices and sources, is unduly neglected, this is not its first recording, as claimed on the CD cover. The singing--both the cantorial solos and the massed choruses--is pointed and effective, if occasionally thin in the sopranos. All 15 pieces of the work are crammed onto this disc as a single 78-minute track, but the most striking feature is reverberation. Some of it may be native to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, where the recording was done, but the engineering exaggerates it, making the singing sound positively polychoral at times.