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Sergei Rachmaninov: Vespers [All​-​Night Vigil​]​, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (excerpts)

by The Prague Philharmonic Choir, Jaroslav Brych

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1.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 1. O come, let us worship 01:57
2.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 2. Praise the Lord, O my soul 04:32
3.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 3. Blessed be the Man 04:52
4.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 4. Hail, gladdening light 02:46
5.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 5. Now Let Thy Servant Depart 03:30
6.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 6. Rejoice, O Virgin Mother of God 02:46
7.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 7. The short Gloria 02:13
8.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 8. O praise the name of the Lord 02:16
9.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 9. Blessed art Thou, O Lord 04:27
10.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 10. Having beheld the resurrection 03:01
11.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 11. Magnificat 06:09
12.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 12. The Great Gloria 07:00
13.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 13. Today is salvation come 01:48
14.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 14. Thou didst rise from the tomb 03:07
15.
Vespers [All-Night Vigil], Op. 37 Mass for unaccompanied chorus 15. To thee, our leader in battle 01:33
16.
The Divine Liturgy of Our Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom, Op. 31 Peace be with you all 03:16
17.
The Divine Liturgy of Our Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom, Op. 31 Hymne of the Cherubim 03:30
18.
The Divine Liturgy of Our Holy Father Saint John Chrysostom, Op. 31 We hymn Thee 02:49

about

In the Russian Orthodox Church, Vespers represent the prayer of hours practised before Sunday and important religious holidays. It is made up of three services (‘Vestchernia’, ‘Utrenia’, ‘Pervy chas’), which correspond in the Roman Catholic rite to the services of vespers, matins and prime, as in use before the liturgical reform of Vatican Council II. The title of the score, "Vsenochnaya bdenije", literally means ""the great praise from evening to morning"", or "all night". It is a form of the prayer of the hours of the Orthodox Church in Russia. They take up all nine ecclesiastical melodies written down on the base of the ‘znamenny’ and Kiev chants drawn from the sacred liturgy published by the Holy Synod. The six choruses added lie within the style of the ancient cantilenas, ‘rospev’, using the eight tones or modal scales of the Orthodox Church. The writing maintains a highly original balance between homophonic and non-fugal contrapuntal styles, while closely following the syllabic flow and accentuation of the Russian language. The result is near a ‘liturgical symphony’, as Johann von Gardner called it, extraordinary sound colour (‘choral orchestration’) and modelling. Rachmaninov loved his Vespers: after his cantata "The Bells", it was, he claimed, his favourite work. He had a predilection for the fifth hymn (‘Now Let Thy Servant Depart’, Luke, 2:29) which he had planned for his own funeral and probably the ninth chant, which he quoted in the finale of his Third Symphony (1938). The first performance of the Vespers took place on 10th March 1915, sung by the Moscow Synod Choir directed by Nikolai Danilin. This was such a success - "an hour of total satisfaction", according to Rachmaninov - that, despite the ban on applauding sacred music, the audience feted the composer with an enthusiastic ovation. Throughout the whole Soviet period (1917-89), performance of these Vespers was forbidden. Today, many music-lovers can discover its intrinsic beauty and the musical skill of its composer, too often reduced to that of an incomparable post-romantic pianist-composer.
Awards: Recommended by Classica, 5 by Diapason, 4* by Le Monde de la Musique

"What are the unquestioning supporters of the highly orthodox Russian Vespers going to do when they learn about this excellent version that comes straight from Prague? Here then is a noticeably less dramatic vision than those of Russian churches but just as intimate when called for by the text, and just as poignant in the large crescendos: absolute accuracy of pitch, homogeneity of the sections, precision of the psalmody, the group of soloists is also perfectly coherent, moving, present but without excess, contemplative…" (Diapason, January 2003)

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250176

credits

released January 1, 2002

The Prague Philharmonic Choir
Jaroslav Brych (Choirmaster)

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all rights reserved

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