Russian Season Fr.
1997
Rachmaninov: Vespers
About This Album
Rachmaninov's greatest work -- his most exalted, profound, and spiritual work -- just might be his Vespers. Freed from the demands of piano virtuosity and the requirements of orchestral color and -- most importantly -- from the bounds and bonds of the emotional and the sensual, Rachmaninov was able to compose pure music. His a cappella writing for the Vespers is without ostentation and display: It is austere to the point of severity and chaste past the point of self-flagellation. It is the music of an alone man communing with his God. The greatest recording of the Vespers was, without hesitation, this one by Vladislav Chernushenko and the Saint Petersburg Cappella. There are other fine recordings out there, with choral singing that is just as precise, just as powerful, and just as beautiful. But Chernushenko and the Saint Petersburg Cappella are far more exalted, far more profound, and far more spiritual than any of them. This can't exactly be quantified, though: The basses seem more secure when they're two octaves below middle C and the sopranos' tone seems more rounded when they're two octaves above middle C. The tenors seem to sing with more strength above middle C and the altos seem to sing with more warmth below middle C. All of that may or may not be verifiably true, but what is true, is no other performance of this work has the same sublime and spiritual effect. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
Track List

Vespers (All-Night Vigil), for alto, tenor & chorus, Op. 37
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.