I heard Efrem Podgaits's "New York Mass" for the first time tonight at Riverside Church, performed by Russian Chamber Chorus of New York and the Riverside Choir under Nikolai Kachanov. In several of the six movements I found the melodies hard to relate to the Latin text, but the Sanctus and especially the Agnus Dei were utterly majestic. It was a memorable conception and performance, and I hope this substantial piece gets more and wider hearings. It is a little disturbing to see the wealth of music Podgaits has composed (his biography is currently at http://podgaits.info/spisoksochineny_.htm on his own site) and then realize that the English-language Wikipedia subsite has no entry for him at all; the Russian-language subsite also seems to lack one.
Kachanov and his Chorus have been performing Russian choral music, secular and sacred and of all periods, for over a quarter century. Recently he has concentrated on music of the past century, little of which is heard in performance by other groups in New York. I have never been disappointed at their concerts; the calendar is maintained at http://rccny.org/ConcertSchedule.html.
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