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

[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.

Well, I very much enjoyed the late night Prom - the sound was fine and it was good to see and hear such an accomplished chamber choir (I was in stalls O though). Having listened to their Ondine recording I was fully signed up to their approach to this work.

I'm no expert, but also very much enjoyed rehearsing and performing the work this year. I was intrigued by the "Big Sound" Russian Choirs referred to, or perhaps more correctly I was aware there was a different sound - of course I was - I had bought a vinyl copy of a Russian choir in the pre-CD era when I was a teenager. ( I recall hearing Rodney Milnes referring with warmth to the sound of "boot lipped Russian contraltos" on a Record Review broadcast). Reading comments in the usual places it seems Sveshnikov's 1965 recording on Melodiya is the version held dear by many, and I have spent a lot of time trying to track down a copy of the Melodiya CD reissue, not currently in the catalogue. (That includes the Melodiya CD ordered from a marketplace seller in the US which turned out to be music by a completely different composer and performers - which is being returned). This appears to be the recording:
USSR Academic Russian Choir. Conductor: A. Sveshnikov (Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery)
Label and No.: Melodia MELCD1001365

With supreme irony, whilst writing this post I traced the version from my previous vinyl collection from the cover image and - it is the very recording I have been seeking on CD - the Sveshnikov!
http://https://www.discogs.com/Rachm...elease/3560085
I kept only about 100 vinyl discs, maximum for their covers, booklets, etc and they are stored and inaccessible. I can't recall if the Vespers record is likely to be amongst them. In any case I'm not about to set up a vinyl record deck anytime soon - I'm setting up our first smart flatscreen TV at the moment - the CRT TV finally failed - by way of contrast. Back to the Melodiya digital re-issue…….

There is a "Classical Masters" recording listed on the River people's site - 1 copy at £24 from Japan, and an mp3 available for less - however the sound on the mp3 sample is very, very poor and gives no encouragement to buy.

So, finally (and you might think, not before time) - finally to report - I found an mp3 download on the Musica Russica site - a US outfit (says founded 30 years or more ago) based in San Diego. I've downloaded it and on a quick sample the sound quality is much more acceptable, and is enough to be going on with - in fact I can't spend any more time on this quest at present. The timings on the download has the same 15 tracks as listed for the CD and the timings are within 15 seconds per track more on the download than the CD so that is consistent with Musica Russica's clear description that this is the Melodiya recording. It comes with a PDF - 8 pages of Russian text, one of English and the listing in both. (No Melodiya logo that I recognise, can't read the Russian Text on the CD case back inlay pdf).
I'll make periodic searches for the CD as a further re-issue or on Ebay, etc, but if anyone can point me to a source with stock, then I'd be interested to know.

http://www.musicarussica.com/compact_discs/a128

And in relation to the previous post, I found 8 paragraphs of (English) text on HMV Japan's site (out of stock - like all the others) I take it to be from the Melodiya European re-issue - it has "(Melodiya)" at the end - but I might be wrong. It contains significant detail about the composer and composition, first performance and biographical detail as to Sveshnikov. including:

"The first performance …(was) by the Synodal Choir under conduction of the close friend of Rachmaninov’s Nicolai Danilin…
Alexander Sveshnikov (1890?1980)….one of the key figures in Russian choral singing of the 20th century…… His untiring work brought him to the creation and conducting of the State Academic Choir of Russian Song. Later it was renamed into the State Academic Russian Choir…… "
http://http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artis...r-USSR_2827838

The Musica Russica page for the recording includes this information:
(As to Sveshnikov) "he did graduate from the famed Moscow Synodal School, whose choir premiered the All-Night Vigil in 1915, when Sveshnikov (1890-1980) was 25 years old…….."(however) "much about this performance……………contradicts what is known about the subtlety and refinement of the Moscow Synodal style.

This recording, the first ever of this work, nevertheless, stands as a unique monument that exhibits, in the person of Alexander Sveshnikov, an organic link to the mighty Russian choral tradition within which Rachmaninoff created his remarkable choral masterpiece. The booklet contains a fine essay about the work and this recording (in Russian only) by Dr Marina Rakhmanova. Titles are given in Russian and English".

(I can supply the PDF booklet if any Russian reader would like to check the HMV Japan text against the PDF booklet).

Apart from the music web review, I also found a Fanfare review on the web, (postscript on EDIT : The Fanfare review is of a recording by a US group of performers, it makes a brief comparison with the Sveshnikov, and gives some information about the Vespers generally).

http://fanfarearchive.com/ntbm/articles/jermihov-int-grames.html

And finally - this is information I have garnered here and there, and to reiterate I have no expertise in this area……….

[richardfinegold]

Well, I very much enjoyed the late night Prom - the sound was fine and it was good to see and hear such an accomplished chamber choir (I was in stalls O though). Having listened to their Ondine recording I was fully signed up to their approach to this work.

I'm no expert, but also very much enjoyed rehearsing and performing the work this year. I was intrigued by the "Big Sound" Russian Choirs referred to, or perhaps more correctly I was aware there was a different sound - of course I was - I had bought a vinyl copy of a Russian choir in the pre-CD era when I was a teenager. ( I recall hearing Rodney Milnes referring with warmth to the sound of "boot lipped Russian contraltos" on a Record Review broadcast). Reading comments in the usual places it seems Sveshnikov's 1965 recording on Melodiya is the version held dear by many, and I have spent a lot of time trying to track down a copy of the Melodiya CD reissue, not currently in the catalogue. (That includes the Melodiya CD ordered from a marketplace seller in the US which turned out to be music by a completely different composer and performers - which is being returned). This appears to be the recording:
USSR Academic Russian Choir. Conductor: A. Sveshnikov (Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery)
Label and No.: Melodia MELCD1001365

With supreme irony, whilst writing this post I traced the version from my previous vinyl collection from the cover image and - it is the very recording I have been seeking on CD - the Sveshnikov!
http://https://www.discogs.com/Rachm...elease/3560085
I kept only about 100 vinyl discs, maximum for their covers, booklets, etc and they are stored and inaccessible. I can't recall if the Vespers record is likely to be amongst them. In any case I'm not about to set up a vinyl record deck anytime soon - I'm setting up our first smart flatscreen TV at the moment - the CRT TV finally failed - by way of contrast. Back to the Melodiya digital re-issue…….

There is a "Classical Masters" recording listed on the River people's site - 1 copy at £24 from Japan, and an mp3 available for less - however the sound on the mp3 sample is very, very poor and gives no encouragement to buy.

So, finally (and you might think, not before time) - finally to report - I found an mp3 download on the Musica Russica site - a US outfit (says founded 30 years or more ago) based in San Diego. I've downloaded it and on a quick sample the sound quality is much more acceptable, and is enough to be going on with - in fact I can't spend any more time on this quest at present. The timings on the download has the same 15 tracks as listed for the CD and the timings are within 15 seconds per track more on the download than the CD so that is consistent with Musica Russica's clear description that this is the Melodiya recording. It comes with a PDF - 8 pages of Russian text, one of English and the listing in both. (No Melodiya logo that I recognise, can't read the Russian Text on the CD case back inlay pdf).
I'll make periodic searches for the CD as a further re-issue or on Ebay, etc, but if anyone can point me to a source with stock, then I'd be interested to know.

http://www.musicarussica.com/compact_discs/a128

And in relation to the previous post, I found 8 paragraphs of (English) text on HMV Japan's site (out of stock - like all the others) I take it to be from the Melodiya European re-issue - it has "(Melodiya)" at the end - but I might be wrong. It contains significant detail about the composer and composition, first performance and biographical detail as to Sveshnikov. including:

"The first performance …(was) by the Synodal Choir under conduction of the close friend of Rachmaninov’s Nicolai Danilin…
Alexander Sveshnikov (1890?1980)….one of the key figures in Russian choral singing of the 20th century…… His untiring work brought him to the creation and conducting of the State Academic Choir of Russian Song. Later it was renamed into the State Academic Russian Choir…… "
http://http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artis...r-USSR_2827838

The Musica Russica page for the recording includes this information:
(As to Sveshnikov) "he did graduate from the famed Moscow Synodal School, whose choir premiered the All-Night Vigil in 1915, when Sveshnikov (1890-1980) was 25 years old…….."(however) "much about this performance……………contradicts what is known about the subtlety and refinement of the Moscow Synodal style.

This recording, the first ever of this work, nevertheless, stands as a unique monument that exhibits, in the person of Alexander Sveshnikov, an organic link to the mighty Russian choral tradition within which Rachmaninoff created his remarkable choral masterpiece. The booklet contains a fine essay about the work and this recording (in Russian only) by Dr Marina Rakhmanova. Titles are given in Russian and English".

(I can supply the PDF booklet if any Russian reader would like to check the HMV Japan text against the PDF booklet).

Apart from the music web review, I also found a Fanfare review on the web:

http://fanfarearchive.com/ntbm/articles/jermihov-int-grames.html

And finally - this is information I have garnered here and there, and to reiterate I have no expertise in this area……….

That link is from last month's Fanfare. I listened to a snippet of the recording after reading the article as I was able to pull it up on Spotify. I'm not much of an expert on this kind of music but the basses struck me as a bit light, not like the Russian Choirs that seem nurtured on tobacco and vodka

[DracoM]

Fascinatingly,https://yle.fi/radio/yleklassinen/suora/on Finnish Radio has just broadcast the complete of the Vespers in the version by St Thomas Fifth Avenue Ch of Men and Boys NYC under the late and much lamented John Scott.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I wasn't aware of the date of the Fanfare review - not apparent from the page pulled up by the internet search. I should make it clear the review was not of the Sveshnikov recording - but of some US singers " Gloriæ Dei Cantores is the resident choir of the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, Massachusetts". So I'm not sure whether Richard Finegold listened and is commenting on that recording, or the Sveshnikov one (which is referenced in the review) The Fanfare review includes some interesting references, so that was the reason I included it - I've amended my post to make that clear.

[richardfinegold]

I wasn't aware of the date of the Fanfare review - not apparent from the page pulled up by the internet search. I should make it clear the review was not of the Sveshnikov recording - but of some US singers " Gloriæ Dei Cantores is the resident choir of the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, Massachusetts". So I'm not sure whether Richard Finegold listened and is commenting on that recording, or the Sveshnikov one (which is referenced in the review) The Fanfare review includes some interesting references, so that was the reason I included it - I've amended my post to make that clear.

I listened to the Gloria Dei Cantores recording.
Orleans, MA is on Cape Cod, very close to where my wife's Parents live, and I would bicycle by the grounds of the Monastery when we had rented a house there several years ago, and the article caught my attention. The choir director was quite open in his admiration for the Sveshnikov recording and I did a search of recordings after reading it and listened to some MP3 snippets of the Gloria Dei recording. I wound up purchasing a recording by the Estonian choir, in Srround sound, on Naxos, which arrived today and am listening as I type. I am not familiar enough with the music to issue a grand proclamation but I do think it benefits from surround sound which nicely reproduces the reverb of a Church

[Cockney Sparrow]

Thanks for clarifying Richard. There are lots of recordings and the Baltic State choirs figure among them - I haven't surveyed the field, but with the excellence they achieve (and the need to balance the chorus with the very low, and apparently rare, low bass octavists**) would lead, I suppose to smaller, chamber choir forces (as with the Latvian Radio Chorus seen at the Proms and their recording on Ondine).

** In The Pappano TV programme on the Bass voice ("Classical Voices", 4 programmes) a Bass octavist was interviewed - I think in Moscow, and if I remember correctly he said he knew of two other octavists performing elsewhere in Russia. I presume more would be singing actively, but nonetheless very rare?

I have had excellent communication from the marketplace seller (glad to namecheck them - World Wide Market Seller - California based) and they regret the confusion in the Amazon listing index. They point out that with these kind of Eastern European CDs there are "Grey market discs" and its very difficult to be sure the disc is a Genuine Melodiya Recording. And they have pointed to another Melodiya catalgoue number for the disc they have. A quick look following that up only adds to the confusion, and when time permits I may try to explore / unravel that (although with Melodiya Soviet era issues, post Soviet issues, and "grey imports" to contend with, I do wonder if this is worth it!) (To add to the mix there are some You Tube renditions stated to be the Sveshnikov).

Its almost getting to the point where it would be simpler to re-commission my stored vinyl deck (new belt, spirit level, tracking weights, my clumsy fingers on that fine engineering......) to listen to the vinyl disc if I can find it. But no - I've turned my back on vinyl, really....

Anyway, for the moment I am playing the mp3 download from Musica Russica while I get on with the things I should really be doing. Musica Russica does seem to be a very reputable organisation (for example my vocal score, published by them, says it is Vol 2 in Series IX of their "Monuments of Russian Sacred Music" publications). The quality is very acceptable for a recording from the 1960's (although the metadata says 1958!), with for example distortion only in fff passages. As I'm listening, I am beginning to appreciate why one forum entry I came upon, about recordings of this work says there is 1) The Sveshnikov recording, and 2) the Others