'Tenebrae: magnificent singing in Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil' - 9.03.05

[Review: Rachmaninov ‘Vespers’ CD] Malcolm Haynes: April 2004, Classic FM magazine (5* & ‘Best Buy’)

Vespers is the first part of the Orthodox All-Night Vigil, which also includes Matins and Prime (the first hour). Rachmaninov’s 15 unaccompanied choral settings from these servies 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 subterranean depths, and there’s also an overall need for non-stop expressive 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 clear 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.

[To buy this disc please visit Signum Records ]