Corydon Singers - Rachmaninov: Liturgy Of St John Chrysostom

Wednesday 1st February 1995
Corydon Singers - Rachmaninov: Liturgy Of St John Chrysostom

STYLE: Choral
RATING 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 18759-
LABEL: Hyperion 66703
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by John Irvine

In the Russian Orthodox Church a 'liturgy' is what we in the West would call a mass or communion service. A normal Sunday liturgy would probably last up to two and a half hours. In order to clock in at 80 minutes, this particular recording omits substantially all of the prayer blessing the bread and wine -chanted by the celebrant, rather than sung. Rachmaninov's church music - the Liturgy Of 1910 and Vespers Of 1915 - was the culmination of a revival of pure Russian music in the church and an attempt to rid the sacred repertoire of music of Italian and German influences. How little time they had: the Church they knew was destroyed in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Rachmaninov himself had a somewhat ambiguous relationship to the church and yet writing the liturgy was an act of great joy. He wrote: "Not for a long time have I written anything with such pleasure." His liturgy has given great pleasure as pure music, and used in the context of Orthodox worship, his setting is gorgeously appropriate to both the words and the sentiments expressed by the words. The music aims at genuine worship, and it succeeds, to the point where it sounds like typical Russian Orthodox Church music, rather than a piece of choral writing from one of the world's best loved composers. The richness of the scoring for voices alone, the 'choral orchestration' that is such a characteristic of Russian sacred music, is deeply impressive and moving. "Slava Otsu" in particular, really hits the spot, transcending the barrier between an aesthetic experience of art and musicianship and a spiritual experience of God. A moving performance of a great liturgical work.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.

Be the first to comment on this article

We welcome your opinions but libellous and abusive comments are not allowed.












We are committed to protecting your privacy. By clicking 'Send comment' you consent to Cross Rhythms storing and processing your personal data. For more information about how we care for your data please see our privacy policy.