Rachmaninoff Vespers

by Music Director Sanford Dole

After two near sell-out performances and a very enthusiastic response to our rendition of Bach’s B minor Mass in November, the Guild Chorus is thrilled to be continuing our 25th anniversary season with another great masterwork from the choral literature. In mid-March we will present three performances, including a return visit to St. Gregory’s Church in San Francisco, of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s lush All-Night Vigil, Op. 37, commonly referred to in English as the Vespers.

This collection of fifteen anthems—lasting, in performance, just over an hour—is music designed to be sung during night-long services celebrated in Russian monasteries and on the eve of holy days in Russian Orthodox churches. Included are Russian Orthodox versions of four texts familiar to Westerners for their many musical settings in Latin: Ave Maria, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, and Gloria portion of the Latin Mass. Most sections are based on traditional chants. The source for six of the fifteen movements is the age-old Znamenny chant, so-called because of the first consistently identifiable znamenny, or signs, by which Russian sacred music was notated. Four more are based on what the Russian church calls Greek chant, which was a seventeenthcentury refinement involving the use of one-note recitatives and simple melismas, or traditional Kiev chants, which alternate between recitative and melodic portions, in the style of Ukrainian folk music. But never is the source material left unadorned. The textures are always rich, often in eight parts, and sometimes in twelve.

Rachmaninoff composed the Vespers in January or February of 1915, during the First World War, but before the 1917 Revolution, when he was at the height of his powers. The piece comes just after what is today his most often performed work, the Third Piano Concerto, memorably featured in Geoffrey Rush’s Oscar-winning film, Shine. Completed in just two weeks, this work has all the Romantic hallmarks of Rachmaninoff’s music, yet his intent was to write in a style that was acceptable for church use as well. As required by church tradition, the score is for unaccompanied voices. Musically, he chose to work within the traditional harmonic and melodic formulas as a way to unify the chant and non-chant sections. The result has been praised as the very pinnacle of Russian Orthodox church music.

Choirs love singing this work. Besides getting to create such exquisite harmonies, rising to the challenge of singing in Church Slavonic is a thrill. With mastery of one’s vocal technique, it is a joy beyond measure to sustain the long, soft phrases and belt out the loud, ecstatic climaxes. We hope you’ll come join us on March 12, 13, or 14 in experiencing all the power, majesty, and emotion contained in this wonderful composition.

Volume 12, Issue 3

Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410