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Rachmaninoff Vespers
All Night Vigil
Tenebrae
Nigel Short
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"Nigel Short and Tenebrae have just the right balance of control and
passion, reverence and exuberance that makes for such a superb
performance." The Organ
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"The result is both intimate and powerfully atmospheric, shedding new
and memorable light on what usually comes across as a massive choral
spectacular."
Classic FM Magazine
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"The All-Night Vigil is celebrated on the eve of the main feasts of
the Russian Orthodox church with the purpose of showing a sense of beauty
in the setting sun."
Classic FM Magazine
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Classic FM Magazine, April 2005 ***** Best Buy
The booklet notes by David Bray are a good start. Helpfully
assuming that most of us in he West aren't familiar with the
Orthadox Church's liturgical and musical traditions, Bray explores
both aspects, and Rachmaninov's relationship to each, with readable
expertise. Vespers is the first part of the Orthodox
All-Night-Vigil, which also includes Matins and Prime(the First
Hour). Rachmaninov's 15 unacommpanied choral settings from these
services encompass a near-miraculous range of musical imagination,
while respecting the traditional chants on which they're largely
based. The work's demands are extreme, with bass parts descending to
suvbteranean depths, and there is also an overall need for non-stop
emotional intensity of a very Russian kind. Tenebrae's success is as
complete as can be imagined from singers who are not themselves
Russian. Their performance was recorded live in the quite small, but
warm and claer acoustic of St Asaph Cathedral in North Wales. The
result is both intimate and powerfully atmospheric, shedding new and
memorable light on what usually comes across as a massive choral
spectacular. The solo singing is a touch variable but the best is
magnificent; and a single item from Rachmaninov's earlier Liturgy
of St John Chrysostom is included as an encore.
Malcolm Hayes
Classic FM Magazine, January 2005
A specially recorded live concert of Rachmaninov's
beautiful Vespers, performed by the choir Tenebrae under the baton of
Nigel Short. It was recorded last September as part of the North Wales
International Music Festival in Great Britain's smallest cathedral, St
Asaph, just west of Chester. The choir, dressed in their rich purple
cassocks, performed to a packed cathedral, lit entirely by candlelight.
The All-Night Vigil is celebrated on the eve of the main feasts of the
Russian Orthodox church with the purpose of showing a sense of beauty in
the setting sun. It gives the congregation a chance to consider the
spiritual light of Christ and the eternal light of the heavenly kingdom.
Nick Bailey
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