Alexandrov Ensemble choir

The Alexandrov Ensemble choir (established Moscow 1926) is the choir of the Alexandrov Ensemble.
It has for most of its history been a male-voice choir of tenors and basses, based in Moscow and directed and conducted by Alexander V. Alexandrov from 1926 to 1946, by his son Boris A. Alexandrov from 1946 to 1987, and by various directors up to the present. It has always consisted of Soviet and then Russian Red Army personnel, and has been held to represent that army at home and abroad. Since the 1990s, female army personnel have occasionally been included in the choir as sopranos. Since 2007 boy sopranos and altos from the associated choir school have joined the choir for some of the time.
On December 25, 2016, a plane containing 92 people, including over 60 members of the choir, crashed while en route to Latakia, Syria.
The central importance of the choir.
Before he died in 1946, Alexander Alexandrov made it clear to his son Boris that the choir was central to the Alexandrov Ensemble, and that without the choir there would be no Ensemble. There are several possible reasons for this: 
Compositions and arrangements for the choir.
In an ideal world any composer, considering arrangements on such a grand scale as many of those recorded by the Alexandrov Ensemble, might reasonably demand the full set of basses, tenors, altos and sopranos, to allow the full range of tonal effects. Alexander Alexandrov, its first director, began his training at Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg, which no doubt had a choir with the full vocal range.
The male-voice choir.
However, for most of its history, the choir has consisted only of basses and tenors. Alexander Alexandrov several times applied to his superiors for permission to include boy singers, but was refused. There are several possible reasons for this refusal:
There are also several positive reasons for a male-voice choir in this Ensemble, especially in those decades when it was establishing its identity at home and abroad:
Thus, during the Ensemble's second tour to the United Kingdom in 1963, "The Times" reviewer shows his astonishment at his first experience of this choir:
"What Verdi would have thought of the full-throated chorus from "Ernani" with an orchestral accompaniment consisting largely of balalaikas and accordions is worthy of contemplation."
– and at the same time he declares: "Their singing and dancing is of a spectacularly high standard".
Composition of the choir.
In the early 1950s a typical full division (which varied from song to song) was as follows: (1) countertenors; (2) first tenors; (3) second tenors; (4) baritones; (5) first bass; (6) second bass; (7) basso profundos. It was of course a great luxury for B. A. Alexandrov to be able to do this, but the Ensemble numbered 475 people including 220 in the choir before the mid-1950s. They all used to go on tour abroad worldwide at the beginning. But in 1955 Krushchev decided to cut the choir to 80 people and prohibited them to go on tour to capitalist countries from that date; only to domestic tours and visits to the Warsaw Pact countries, as well as to countries with strong relations with the USSR.
The size of the choir.
The choir appears to function most successfully with a minimum of 80 singers. Most of the films and photographs of the Ensemble in its heyday, including the 1948 Berlin Peace Concert, 
and during the directorship of Boris Alexandrov, show a choir of at least 80 singers.
This size allows the characteristic massed-voices effect of the Ensemble, plus the opportunity for the composer or arranger to score for several parts, in both bass and tenor sections. For example, in "Song of the Dnieper", a basso profondo line suddenly appears in the chorus two-thirds of the way through, giving a powerful effect.
By contrast, during the UK 1988 tour, the Ensemble had a choir of up to 36. Professionalism and the characteristic discipline of the Ensemble maintained good performance standards, but the small choir lacked the powerful, massed-voiced sound that its audience remembered from 1956 and 1963.
The choral songs.
Many of these are listed
here and
here in Russian. Listed below are some of the notable ones. More are listed on the Alexandrov Ensemble discography page.
The chorus alone.
"In alphabetical order:"
The chorus with soloists.
"In alphabetical order:"