Clarion Choir, Steven Fox, director; Mikki Sodergren, mezzo-soprano; John Ramseyer, tenor.
Sergei RACHMANINOFF: All-night Vigil, Op. 37 (“Vespers”)
Pentatone 5187019
Release Date: January 27, 2023
Duration: 74:36
Giorgio Koukl | 18 JAN 2023
In the compositional output of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), choir works played a central role.
Pentatone 5187019
He started very early with a work called “Deus meus,” and with his Six Choral Works, Op. 15, he contributed significantly to the repertoire of female voices, followed in 1910 by the St. John Chrysostomos liturgy and the well-known choral score “Kolokoly” (“The Bells”) in 1913. The large work presented here for soloists and mixed choir “Vsenochnaja” (“All-night Vigil”), Op. 37, crowned this trend in 1915. This work, at more than 70 minutes long, was never intended to be used in church during Easter night as the parts covering the traditional orthodox mass would not have been long enough.
After this score, until the composer’s death, only smaller occasional choral works were written. The use of female voices in the orthodox liturgy was tolerated only from the end of the 19th century, mainly through the work of Alexander Archangelsky (1846-1924), in difference to the use of musical instruments, previously forbidden. During his Moscow years, Rachmaninoff was in close contact with Nikolai Danilin and the enormous choir of the Synodal School of Church Singing (more than 80 men and boys), probably having this sound in his head while composing.
The old byzantine tradition, which entered into the newly founded Christian Church of Kiyv in 899, was soon intermingled with the local influence resulting in the use of Old Slavonic language and a much more significant folk song contamination until the point that, similarly to the Latin church, there were attempt made to “free” these original melodies, attempts which really never succeeded.
The use of male choirs accompanying the mostly sung orthodox mass was established relatively late with the work of composers Bortnjansky and Beresowsky (both late 18th century).
So, it is no wonder that Rachmaninoff himself composed only six parts of his ponderous mass, using for the rest the traditional melodies of the past.
This new album by the Clarion Choir and its director Steven Fox enters into direct competition with a long list of big choirs who recorded this score in the past.
Let us take as reference the Russian state choir of the USSR conducted by Alexander Sveschnikov and with soloists Klara Korkan, mezzo-soprano, and Konstantin Ognevoj, tenor. Despite this being a recording from 1965, with all its technical limits, when counterposed to the Clarion Choir version, the Russian voices are clearly superior, certainly in numbers but also in a typically “Russian” timbre which is quite impossible to imitate.
The Clarion singers have good control of the dynamics and the overall phrasing, but their Old Slavonic pronunciation is practically impossible to understand. It is a real pity that more attention was not paid to such an important aspect.
The choices of tempi are pretty similar, as is the array of dynamics.
For example, the opening first track with its three solo voices, one of them being a genuinely noteworthy sub-bass, has the whole choral mass answering “Amin” (“Amen”). This should be a real show of mightiness, but with a limited number of choristers, as in the case of Clarion, this simply cannot work.
Nevertheless, there are tracks of simple beauty where this big handicap of numbers is of no hindrance, such as the Kiyv chant “O Gladsome Light.”
The overall acoustic picture is a very good one. Here the technical staff did genuinely solid, professional work. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Clarion Music Society: clarionsociety.org
Read more by Giorgio Koukl.
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