Prom 38 - 13.08.17: Rachmaninov – All-Night Vigil (Vespers)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

21:45 Sunday 13 August 2017
Royal Albert Hall

Sergei Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil (Vespers)

Latvian Radio Choir
Sigvards Kļava director


Hailed as 'the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church', Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil (Vespers) is also one of the loveliest works of any faith - a profoundly moving statement of belief and the last major work the composer completed before he left Russia.

Sung unaccompanied, the Vigil is a choral tour de force, pushing the singers to the limits of both range and dynamics. The effect is strikingly dramatic, encompassing the ecstatic choral celebration of the Resurrection Hymn 'Today salvation has come' and the infinite tenderness of the 'Ave Maria'.
The Latvian Radio Choir returns following its performance of Orthodox chant in tonight's earlier Prom.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A busy day for the choir then.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Their recording on Ondine is one (or, perhaps the) of the "go to" recordings and its certainly atmospheric and well executed, in good sound. Having sung it this year, I'm tempted to go along on Sunday - its a 90 minute journey down to the RAH.

My only reservation is what the sound of a small choir will be if I a) Prom or b) manage to get a ticket in stalls. OTOH I can listen at home on the FLAC stream (with the sound engineers compensating for any deficiencies of the Hall). Any information from those with experience of small forces in the Hall will be gratefully received.

[pastoralguy]

Absolutely beautiful singing...

[gurnemanz]

Absolutely beautiful singing...

Ditto

[DracoM]

Well, my guess is you had to be there.
Not entirely convinced by the overall 'sound'. Don't for a moment doubt their fine musicianship.
Maybe I have been too indoctrinated by the weighty sound of the big Russian ensembles.

[gradus]

Well, my guess is you had to be there.
Not entirely convinced by the overall 'sound'. Don't for a moment doubt their fine musicianship.
Maybe I have been too indoctrinated by the weighty sound of the big Russian ensembles.

It sounded like a smaller choir and balanced rather forward. Fine singing but like Dracs I prefer the sound of the big Russian choirs.

[PhilipT]

It sounded like a smaller choir and balanced rather forward. Fine singing but like Dracs I prefer the sound of the big Russian choirs.

I was on the front row, and the balance was fine where I was . In case you were wondering, there were 24 of them. How they got through it without a swig of water between them I can't imagine. A fine performance, and, for me, well worth all the trouble and expense. Like others here I'd like to hear this done by a large Russian choir next time, just for the contrast, but this choir will be welcome back anytime.

[Bryn]

The binaural 'Taster' is now available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...binaural-sound . Just scroll down to "The Binaural Proms Collection" for a good selection of Prom performances in binaural sound from this and previous seasons. There are no presenter announcements, either informative or otherwise, just the performances and applause.

[subcontrabass]

I have only listened to the Vespers parts so far (numbers 1 to 6). I offer these thoughts:

With a small choir it is not possible to get the extreme contrasts between pianissimo and fortissimo (as specified in the score) in the way that is enabled by a larger choir. HIPP considerations indicate a larger choir. The historic accounts of the first performance record that this was by the Moscow Synodal Chorus. What these records often fail to indicate is that that choir was then a choir of boys and men (the Church in Moscow was much more conservative than that in St Petersburg). Other records indicate that this choir at that time consisted of around 60 boys and 20 men, with the boys singing alto parts as well as soprano parts (modelled on German church choirs rather than British). If one postulates that the men would include a small number of falsettists to reinforce the alto lines and take the alto solo parts then one gets to a basis of around 9 basses and 9 tenors, suggesting that a professional choir should have at least 36 singers in total (giving three to each part on maximum subdivisions). Amateur choirs to match this need to be much larger. These same HIPP considerations also indicate the sort of sound that should be made by the top line. I have heard a performance by a large English amateur choir where, if one closed ones eyes, one could hear the work as if sung by boys. This is a matter for the choir director.

In this performance, as well as the extremes of dynamics not being there, the tempi were frequently all over the place. In number 1, there is no variation in tempo indicated until the final two bars. The text requires that the music should drive on from one line of text to the next. In this performance each line of text slowed down towards the end and ground to a halt before moving on to the next line.

Number 2 was rather better, and made a good start by not having a break after number 1 (they are part of a single liturgical unit and should be sung without a break). The tempo was about right (i.e. it was at the speed at which the underlying traditional chant is customarily sung). It would have been improved if the chant melody could have been brought out a little more clearly when it moves around the inner parts. It sounded to me as if the solo part was, in fact, sung by two voices. Was this the case?

Number 3, by contrast, was all over the place with tempi. It started well, but like Number 1 kept slowing down too much at the end of each verse. When more energetic singing was indicated it seemed to slow down a little, and the Tempo I sections towards the end seemed to be much slower than the opening.

Number 4 was generally OK.

Number 5 was far too fast. Like number 2 there is a fairly standard speed for singing the original melody, which in this case is rather slowly.

Tenor solos in 4 and 5 were, I think, taken by two voices. This is permitted according to the composer's instructions. I prefer the contrast made when these are taken by a single voice.

It was very odd to have Number 6 sung slower than Number 5. This was one of the sections where the small size of the choir left much to be desired.

Otherwise, pronunciation and enunciation were generally good. It was nice to hear the first word in Number 1 sung correctly and clearly with four syllables (many choirs elide the first two). Final consonant "ch" (pronounced somewhat as in German, but slightly softened) tended to vanish, but that may just have been to do with the size of the building.

There was, sadly, nothing in this performance that makes me want to find the time to go back and listen to the rest of it.

[DracoM]

Many thx for the scrutiny and explanation.
I share your final verdict.

Interestingly I have a CE of the St Thomas Fifth Ave boys and men choir singing the Vespers. Interesting to have New York mixed race timbres.
And of course, online / utube.........etc etc etc!!

[gradus]

The 1991 proms performance by the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir was superb and the same artists recorded it for Melodiya but I don't know if it is still available. Once heard it is difficult to get that true Russian choral sound out of your head in this piece - extraordinary voices especially the deep basses and the fervour and passionate intensity of the choir are deeply affecting. Shame that the BBC rarely repeats old Prom recordings, there are some absolute corkers in the archives.

[PhilipT]

The 1991 proms performance by the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir was superb and the same artists recorded it for Melodiya but I don't know if it is still available.

Currently available (second-hand only) on Amazon.

If someone can recommend a CD recording in the big Russian choir style that's available brand-new I'd be grateful.

[DracoM]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/26/rachmaninov-vespers-saint-thomas-choir-review

Review of the St Thom Fifth Ave CD I referred to above. CD available from SaintThomasChurch.org

[BasilHarwood]

"The title of the work is often mis-translated as simply Vespers. This is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work: only the first six of its fifteen movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical hour of Vespers."