Listening to Rachmaninov; all-night Vigil at the Cappella Caeciliana concert on Sunday, you gained a different sense of the romantic Russian composer. The Vespers are written in Russian Orthodox musical language, based on religious chants, with the recognisable colour and control. What links the two, religious and romantic, is high emotion and it’s revealing that Rachmaninov aid this was one of his favourite compositions. It was written quickly, in two weeks, yet has been described as ‘one of the last great crowning achievement of Russian Orthodox choral music’,
Premiered in 1915 at the start of World War One, there is a palpable sense of lamentation running through the fifteen shortish movements. It’s a meditative piece and it started with a blast of choral soumd, tempering to piano passages.
The choir rose to the demanding challenge of the score, which goes high and very low, with spirit and feeling. They delivered this liturgical work in a heartfelt manner. The basses are asked in a famous descending passage to reach for the third B falt below middle C. Finding the vocal talent would be like discovering spring asparagus at Christmas according to one commentator. But the Caeciliana found some.
The fifth movement, the Nunc Dimittis, is the one the composer asked to be played at his funeral. It involves a tenor solo, which was well done also the tolling bell effect. The exuberant Alleluia passages elsewhere were enthusiastically delivered. So too the second half of the Vigil, with section 8, Praise the name of the Lord, lively and almost fugal. The ninth section, based on the Resurrection, had real emotional power. The piece rises to a climax and follows the spiritual pattern of penitence to proclamation.
Conductor Matthew Quinn gained the best from the choir, with a choice of nice tempi and dynamics.
The Banana Block has a good acoustic and it was wonderful, and memorable, hearing these voices expressing Rachmaninov on a cold winter’s night.
Jane Hardy
