7
1
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF ( 1873–1943 )
ALL-NIGHT VIGIL, Op.
37
Приидите, поклонимся [1:44]
Priidite, poklonimsya
O come, let us worship
2 Благослови, душе моя, Господа (Греческаго распева) [4:02]
Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Gospoda (Grecheskago raspeva)
Bless the Lord, O my soul (Greek chant)
Caitlin Goreing alto
3 Блажен муж [5:09]
Blazhen muzh
Blessed is the man
4 Свете тихий (Киевскаго распева) [2:25]
Svete tikhy (Kiyevskago raspeva)
O gladsome light (Kyivan chant)
Chris O’Leary tenor
5 Ныне отпущаеши (Киевскаго распева) [2:51]
Nyne otpushchayeshi (Kiyevskago raspeva)
Now lettest Thou (Kyivan chant)
Chris O’Leary tenor
6 Богородице Дево [2:39]
Bogoroditse Devo
O Theotokos Virgin
Славословие малое «Шестопсалмие»
Slavosloviye maloye ‘Shestopsalmiye’
Lesser Doxology before the Six Psalms
[2:27]
The Choir of King’s College London | Joseph Fort
9 Благословен еси, Господи (Знаменнаго распева) [5:43]
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi (Znamennago raspeva)
Blessed art Thou, O Lord (Znamenny chant) Chris O’Leary tenor
10 Воскресение Христово видевше [3:14]
Voskreseniye Khristovo videvshe Having beheld the resurrection of Christ
11 Величит душа моя Господа [7:05]
Velichit dusha moya Gospoda My soul doth magnify the Lord
12 Великое славословие (Знаменнаго распева) [7:20]
Velikoye slavosloviye (Znamennago raspeva) The Great Doxology (Znamenny chant)
13 Тропар. Днесь спасение (Знаменнаго распева) [1:42]
Tropar. Dnes spaseniye (Znamennago raspeva)
Troparion. Today is salvation come (Znamenny chant)
14 Тропар. Воскрес из гроба (Знаменнаго распева) [3:10]
Tropar. Voskres iz groba (Znamennago raspeva)
Troparion. Having risen from the tomb (Znamenny chant)
15 Взбранной воеводе (Греческаго распева) [1:33]
Vzbrannoy voyevode (Grecheskago raspeva)
To Thee the champion leader (Greek chant)
Total playing time [53:10]
8 Хвалите имя Господне (Знаменнаго распева) [1:58]
Khvalite imya Gospodne (Znamennago raspeva)
Praise ye the name of the Lord (Znamenny chant)
The music of Sergei Rachmaninoff has long been associated with the soundscapes of imperial Russia. In Oskar von Riesemann’s poetic (if sometimes unreliable) account of the composer, Rachmaninoff’s Recollections, the aural markers of Orthodox faith – chant and the ringing of bells – emerge as a constant presence in Rachmaninoff’s youth. On his grandmother’s country estate near the ancient city of Novgorod, the pealing of bells wafted out over the landscape, while during visits in St Petersburg, she took her young grandson to various churches in the city. As Rachmaninoff recounted:
Being only a young greenhorn, I took less interest in God and religious worship than in the singing, which was of unrivalled beauty, especially in the cathedrals, where one frequently heard the best choirs of St Petersburg. I usually took pains to find room underneath the gallery and never missed a single note. Thanks to my good memory, I also remembered most of what I heard. This I turned into capital – literally – by sitting down at the piano when I came home, and playing all I had heard. For this performance my grandmother never failed to reward me with twenty-five kopeks, and, naturally, I was not loath to exert my memory for such a consideration, as twenty-five kopeks meant a large sum to an urchin of ten or eleven.
Second Piano Concerto, Op. 18 or the undulating opening melody of the Third Piano Concerto, Op. 30. Given the centrality of such aural markers of Orthodoxy to Rachmaninoff’s creative output, it is ironic that his compositions most immediately connected to the Orthodox liturgy are –compared to, say, his concertos – relatively unfamiliar to many concert audiences. Yet the All-Night Vigil, Op. 37, which melds aesthetic exploration and spiritual striving, is arguably the quintessential product of the cultural ferment of late Imperial Russia.
expression in the works of artists ranging from Ilya Repin to Kazimir Malevich.
Listeners have often discerned echoes of bells and Orthodox chant in Rachmaninoff’s music, from his youthful Suite No.1, Op. 5, to the ponderous opening chords of his
By the late nineteenth century, the aesthetic potential of Russian Orthodox culture was actively promoted by Russia’s rising merchant class. Savva Mamantov (who gave Rachmaninoff his start as a conductor at the Moscow Private Opera in the 1890s) hosted a colony of artists dedicated to recreating the spirit of medieval Russian art at his estate at Abramtsevo, near Moscow. Similarly, the lines between art and religious iconography were blurred by wealthy art collectors like Pyotr Tretyakov who interspersed his stellar Russian art collection with Orthodox icons, repositioning devotional objects within the broader development of art. By the early twentieth century, pioneering techniques in cleaning icons furthered the appreciation of the aesthetic as well as spiritual accomplishments of medieval Russian culture, an appreciation that found visual
Sacred music similarly emerged as a space for redefining Russian art and culture. In 1881, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s publisher Jurgenson successfully sued the Russian Imperial Court Capella for the right to publish the composer’s 1878 setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 41, bringing the Capella’s sixty-year monopoly on the publication of church music to an end. Jurgenson’s legal victory opened new possibilities for composers working outside the institutional boundaries of the Russian Orthodox Church to explore sacred music. Concerts of sacred compositions, once a rare occurrence, grew increasingly popular, while choirs at leading churches and cathedrals often announced their repertoire in advance in order to draw larger audiences. New compositional possibilities were fostered by the creative environment of the Moscow Synodal Choir and its affiliate institution, the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing. Rachmaninoff’s émigré memories of Russian Orthodox Easter were intimately connected with the creative milieu surrounding the Synodal Choir. Of this choir, which premiered all three of his sacred compositions, Rachmaninoff later recollected, ‘no words can describe the pure harmonious singing of this choir, the best I ever heard.’
Renowned chant scholar Stepan Smolensky (1848–1909) served as both Director of the Synodal School and Professor of Church Music at the Moscow Conservatory from 1886 to 1901. He advocated the purification of ancient Russian chants from perceived ‘foreign’ influences and the development of a uniquely Russian manner of setting ancient chants drawn from the Obikhod (the collection of liturgical chants employed by the Russian Orthodox Church). Smolensky’s efforts inspired the development of a new style of sacred composition by composers like Aleksandr Kastalsky, Aleksandr Grechaninov and Pavel Chesnokov. This ‘New Direction’ employed heterophonic textures, distinctive voice-leading and polyphonic principles suited to the character of the ancient chant melodies.
However, debate raged over blurring the dividing line between aesthetic and religious practice in both art and music. The curiosity of educated society was piqued in 1908 by the first ever concert performance of traditional, strict monophonic chant by Old Believers – a schismatic branch of Russian Orthodoxy that claimed to have preserved ancient traditions abandoned by the mainstream church. While welcoming the insight that such an event provided into the character of ancient chant melodies, musicians and clergy alike debated whether such a concert experience was best
described as a laudable resurrection of ancient Russian traditions, or a questionable secularisation of spirituality. All three of Rachmaninoff’s sacred works confronted these contradictions. In 1893, he composed his first religious composition, the sacred concerto, ’Theotokos, Ever Vigilant in Prayer’. Though premiered by the Moscow Synodal Choir the same year, it remained unpublished, perhaps due to inaccuracies in the text that would have prevented it from receiving approval from the Office of Sacred Censorship. Rachmaninoff nonetheless remained fond of his youthful work, musing to Arkady Kerzin in a letter dated 15 April 1906 that the work was ‘relatively decent, but not very spiritual’. Smolensky, whose conservatory classes in the history of Russian church music Rachmaninoff had attended, encouraged the young composer’s budding interest in liturgical music. He permitted Rachmaninoff to attend Moscow Synodal Choir rehearsals and even invited him to join the teaching staff of the Moscow Synodal School (an offer Rachmaninoff declined). In 1897, Smolensky sent Rachmaninoff the text for the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. This last attempt bore fruit in 1910 – one year after Smolensky’s death.
with numerous liturgical and textual issues. When he began work on his the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom he relied heavily on both Tchaikovsky’s 1878 setting of the Liturgy and the Service Book (Sluzhebnik) of the Russian Orthodox Church. He also repeatedly turned with questions to Smolensky’s protégé (now head of the Synodal School), Aleksandr Kastalsky. Despite these efforts, contemporaries were divided over the Liturgy’s suitability as a sacred work due to the ‘operatic’ and ‘secular’ musical style employed. Rachmaninoff later claimed to Riesemann that he was inspired to return to liturgical music after hearing a performance of the Liturgy, which he felt ‘solves the problem of Russian Church music very inadequately’.
Though well acquainted with the aural and visual experience of Russian Orthodox services, Rachmaninoff was unfamiliar
Rachmaninoff’s return to a liturgical text occurred amid a growing sense of impending doom awakened by war. After observing both the frantic military preparations and carelessly celebratory mood amongst the local peasantry in July 1914, Rachmaninoff wrote to his cousin Aleksandr Siloti, ‘I was seized with horror, and at the same time felt the heavy awareness that, regardless of who we fought, we would not be the victors.’ After a series of benefit concerts for wounded soldiers that autumn, exhausted and struggling with a recurring sense of creative paralysis, Rachmaninoff began work on the All-Night Vigil in January 1915, completing it in under two weeks. It was premiered on 10 March 1915.
Liturgically, the All-Night Vigil is an evening service combining Vespers and Matins, performed on the eve of Sundays and Feast Days. Unlike in his earlier Liturgy, which was newly composed, Rachmaninoff employed pre-existing Russian Orthodox chant melodies (‘Greek’, znamenny, and ‘Kyivan’ traditions) for ten of the fifteen movements in the Vigil, while the remaining five employed what Rachmaninoff himself called a ‘conscious counterfeit’ of chant. The dedicatee was Stepan Smolensky. The work opens with an invitation to prayer in No. 1 (O come, let us worship), signalling to the listener a turning away from worldly to spiritual concerns. Though a newly composed melody, its narrow, stepwise contours imitate the world of Russian znamenny chant. In No. 2 (Bless the Lord, O my soul), Rachmaninoff first employs an approach utilised throughout the work: a solo voice individualises the song of praise, with choral voices depicting the heavenly realm. Rachmaninoff also incorporates the unusual device (for Russian liturgical music) of wordless humming. In No. 3 (Blessed is the man), variety is achieved through exploring ever new settings of the three-fold ‘Alleluia’ refrain that recurs between psalm verses. Rachmaninoff’s indebtedness to Smolensky and the ‘New Direction’ in Russian church music is showcased in the counterpoint based on Russian folk style in No. 4 (O gladsome light). In contrast, No. 5
(Now lettest Thou) offers a peaceful, lilting mood. This was reportedly Rachmaninoff’s favourite movement, which he wished to have performed at his funeral. The Vespers section of the work ends with another ‘conscious counterfeit’ of chant in No. 6 (O Theotokos Virgin).
In the second half of the All-Night Vigil, Rachmaninoff creates continuity through musically linking the beginning of Matins, No. 7 (Lesser Doxology) ‘Glory to God in the highest’ with the main declaration of Christian faith in No. 12 (The Great Doxology). The same znamenny chant, together with a vocal imitation of bells, features in both movements. They serve to bookend the dramatic setting of No. 8 (Praise ye the name of the Lord) – the point in the service when the Royal Doors of the iconostasis are opened and the clergy process to the centre of the church. A portion of No. 9 (Blessed art Thou, O Lord), which recounts Christ’s resurrection, reappeared years later in the finale of Rachmaninoff’s 1940 Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 – perhaps a comment on his life’s journey or continued religious belief. The austerity of No. 10 (Having beheld the resurrection of Christ), though again a ‘conscious counterfeit’ of chant, evokes images of the strict style of singing showcased in concerts given by Old Believer choirs. In No. 11 (My soul doth magnify the Lord), Mary’s hymn of praise contrasts a newly composed chant-like melody
in the basses with an angelic refrain in the upper voices. No. 13 (Troparion. Today is salvation come) and No. 14 (Troparion. Having risen from the tomb) provide a quiet meditative space after the intensity of the Great Doxology, while No. 15 (To Thee the champion leader) supplies a rousing finale perhaps more reminiscent of a concert hall than religious service.
The All-Night Vigil provided a stirring expression of a unified Russian identity amid the existential threat of military conflict, and the Moscow Synodal Choir performed five concerts in Moscow to an overfilled audience in March–April 1915. As critic Leonid Sabaneyev noted in a review for the newspaper Voice of Moscow, ‘Rachmaninoff has managed to capture the spirit of Russian church chant and, having accomplished this, created something unique, free and new, but entirely in keeping with this [sacred] spirit.’ Though several contemporary critics remained skeptical of the work’s ‘ecclesiality’, the All-Night Vigil was generally perceived to have achieved a synthesis of aesthetic and spiritual demands.
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 the All-Night Vigil came to occupy a questionable status. In the Soviet Union its artistic merit was now emphasised through minimising its sacred import and instead stressing Rachmaninoff’s ‘unusual mastery of ancient Russian folk song’, as the Soviet newspaper Izvestiya noted in 1943. In contrast, for Russian émigrés cut off from their homeland, the All-Night Vigil served as a space of religious and cultural memory – an aural remnant of a lost world. For listeners today, the beauty of Rachmaninoff’s creation invites one to ponder anew the complex meld of spiritual, artistic and national inspiration achieved in a moment of historical crisis.
© 2023 Rebecca Mitchell
Rebecca Mitchell is a historian of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, and the author of Sergei Rachmaninoff (Reaktion Press, 2022). She teaches at Middlebury College, Vermont.
1 Приидите, поклонимся
Priidite, poklonimsya
O come, let us worship
Priidite, poklonimsya Tsarevi nashemu Bogu.
Priidite, poklonimsya i pripadem Khristu Tsarevi nashemu Bogu.
Priidite, poklonimsya i pripadem samomu Khristu Tsarevi nashemu Bogu.
Priidite, poklonimsya i pripadem Yemu.
O come, let us worship God our King.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Him.
2 Благослови, душе моя, Господа (Греческаго распева)
Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Gospoda (Grecheskago raspeva)
Bless the Lord, O my soul (Greek chant)
Blagoslovi, dushe moya, Gospoda. Blagoslaven yesi, Gospodi. Gospodi Bozhe moy, vozvelichilsya yesi zelo. Vo ispovedaniye i v velelepotu obleklsya yesi. Na gorakh stanut vody. Divna dela Tvoya, Gospodi. Posrede gor proidut vody.
Vsya premudrostiyu sotvoril yesi. Slava Ti, Gospodi, sotvorivshemu vsya.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord.
O Lord my God, Thou hast been magnified exceedingly.
Confession and majesty hast Thou put on.
Upon the mountains shall the waters stand. Wondrous are Thy works, O Lord.
Between the mountains will the waters run. In wisdom hast Thou made them all.
Glory to Thee, O Lord, who hast made them all.
3 Блажен муж
Blazhen muzh
Blessed is the man
Blazhen muzh, izhe ne ide na sovet nechestivykh. Alliluiya. Yako vest Gospod put pravednykh, i put nechestivykh pogibnet. Rabotayte Gospodevi so strakhom i raduytesya Yemu s trepetom. Blazheni vsi nadeyushchiisya Nan. Voskresni, Gospodi, spasi mya, Bozhe moy. Gospodne yest spaseniye i na lyudekh Tvoikh blagosloveniye Tvoye.
Slava Ottsu i Synu i Svyatomu Dukhu, i nyne i prisno i vo veki vekov. Amin. Alliluiya. Slava Tebe, Bozhe.
Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly. Alleluia.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling.
Blessed are all that have put their trust in Him.
Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God.
Salvation is of the Lord, and Thy blessing is upon Thy people.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.
Amen. Alleluia. Glory to Thee, O God.
5 Ныне отпущаеши (Киевскаго распева)
Nyne otpushchayeshi (Kiyevskago raspeva) Now lettest Thou (Kyivan chant)
Nyne otpushchayeshi raba Tvoyego, Vladyko, po glagolu Tvoyemu, s mirom; Yako videsta ochi moi spaseniye Tvoye, yezhe yesi ugotoval, pred litsem vsekh lyudey, svet vo otkroveniye yazykov i slavu lyudey Tvoikh Izrailya.
Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light of revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.
6 Богородице Дево
Bogoroditse Devo O Theotokos Virgin
4 Свете тихий (Киевскаго распева)
Svete tikhy (Kiyevskago raspeva)
O gladsome light (Kyivan chant)
Svete tikhy, svyatyya slavy Bezsmertnago Ottsa Nebesnago, Svyatago, Blazhennago, Iisuse Khriste!
Prishedshe na zapad solntsa, videvshe svet vecherny. Poyem Ottsa, Syna i Svyatago Dukha, Boga. Svete tikhy, svyatyya slavy. Dostoin yesi pet byti glasi prepodobnymi, Svete tikhy, svyatyya slavy. Dostoin yesi vo vsya vremena, Syne Bozhy, zhivot dayay: temzhe mir Tya slavit.
O gladsome light of the holy glory of the Immortal, Heavenly, Holy, Blessed Father, O Jesus Christ!
Having come to the setting of the sun, having beheld the evening light.
We praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: God.
O gladsome light of the holy glory: meet it is for Thee to be hymned with reverent voices.
O gladsome light of the holy glory: meet it is at all times, O Son of God, Giver of life: wherefore, the world doth glorify Thee.
Bogoroditse Devo, raduysya, Blagodatnaya Mariye, Gospod s Toboyu. Blagosovena Ty v zhenakh, i blagosloven Plod chreva Tvoyego, yako Spasa rodila yesi dush nashykh.
O Theotokos Virgin, rejoice!
O Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb, for Thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
7 Славословие малое «Шестопсалмие»
Slavosloviye maloye ‘Shestopsalmiye’
Lesser Doxology before the Six Psalms
Slava v vyshnikh Bogu, i a zemli mir, v chelovetsekh blagovoleniye. Gospodi, ustne moi otverzeshi, i usta moya vozvestyat khvalu Tvoyu.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.
O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.
8 Хвалите имя Господне (Знаменнаго распева)
Khvalite imya Gospodne (Znamennago raspeva)
Praise ye the name of the Lord (Znamenny chant)
Khvalite imya Gospodne. Alliluiya.
Khvalite, rabi, Gospoda.
Blagosloven Gospod ot Siona, zhivy vo Ierusalime.
Ispovedaytesya Gospodevi, yako blag, yako v vek milost Yego.
Alliluiya. Ispovedaytesya Bogu Nebesnomu. Alliluiya, alliluiya.
Praise ye the name of the Lord. Alleluia.
O ye servants, praise the Lord.
Blessed is the Lord out of Zion, who dwelleth in Jerusalem.
O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.
Alleluia. Give thanks unto the God of Heaven.
Alleluia, alleluia.
9 Благословен еси, Господи (Знаменнаго распева)
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi (Znamennago raspeva)
Blessed art Thou, O Lord (Znamenny chant)
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi, nauchi mya opravdaniem Tvoim.
Angelsky sobor udivisya, zrya Tebe v mertvykh vmenivshasya, smertnuyu zhe, Spase, krepost razorivsha, i s soboyu Adama vozdvigsha i ot ada vsya svobozhdsha.
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi … Pochto mira s milostivnymi slezami, o uchenitsy rastvoryayete? Blistayaysya vo grobe, Angel mironositsam veshchashe: Vidite vy grob i urazumeyte: Spas bo voskrese ot groba.
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi …
Blessed art Thou, O Lord; teach me Thy statutes. The assembly of the Angels was amazed, beholding Thee numbered among the dead, yet, O Saviour, destroying the stronghold of death, and with Thyself raising up Adam, and freeing all from Hades.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord … Why mingle ye myrrh with tears of pity, O ye women disciples? Thus the radiant Angel within the tomb addressed the myrrh-bearing women: Behold the tomb and understand, for the Saviour is risen from the tomb.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord …
Zelo rano mironositsy techakhu ko grobu Tvoyemu rydayushchiya, no predsta k nim Angel i reche: Rydaniya vremya presta, ne plachite voskreseniye zhe apostolom rtsyte. Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi … Mironositsy zheny, s miry prishedshiya ko grobu Tvoyemu, Spase, rydakhu, Angel zhe k nim reche, glagolya: Chto s mertvymi zhivago pomyshlyayete? Yako Bog bo voskrese ot groba.
Slava Ottsu i Synu i Svyatomu Dukhu. Poklonimsya Ottsu, i Ego Synovi, i Svyatomu Dukhu, Svyatey Troitse vo yedinom sushchestve, s Serafimy zovushche: Svyat, svyat, svyat yesi, Gospodi. I nyne i prisno i vo veki vekov. Amin.
Zhiznodavtsa rozhdshi, grekha, Devo, Adama izbavila yesi. Radost zhe Yeve v pechali mesto podala yesi; padshiya zhe ot zhizni k sey napravi, iz Tebe voplotivysya Bog i chelovek. Alliluiya, slava Tebe, Bozhe.
Very early the myrrh-bearing women hastened unto Thy tomb lamenting; but the Angel stood before them and said: The time for lamentation is past; weep not, but tell of the resurrection to the apostles.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord …
The myrrh-bearing women, with myrrh came to Thy tomb, O Saviour, bewailing, but the Angel addressed them saying: Why number ye the living among the dead? For as God He is risen from the tomb.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Let us worship the Father, and His Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, one in essence, crying with the Seraphim: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O Lord. Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
In bringing forth the Giver of Life, Thou hast delivered Adam from sin, O Virgin, and hast brought joy to Eve instead of sorrow; and those fallen from life hath thereunto been restored, by Him who of Thee was incarnate, God and man.
Alleluia. Glory to Thee, O God.
10 Воскресение Христово видевше Voskreseniye Khristovo videvshe
Having beheld the resurrection of Christ Voskreseniye Khristovo videvshe, poklonimsya Svyatomu Gospodu Iisusu, Yedinomu bezgreshnomu. Krestu Tvoyemu poklanyayemsya, Khriste, i svyatoye voskreseniye Tvoye poyem i slavim: Ty bo yesi Bog nash, razve Tebe inogo ne znayem, imya Tvoye imenuyem. Priidite, vsi vernii, poklonimsya Svyatomu Khristovu voskreseniyu: se bo priide krestom padost vsemu miru, radost; vsegda blogoslovyashche Gospoda, poyem voskreseniye Yego: raspyatiye bo preterpev, smertiyu smert razrushi.
Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One. We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and Thy holy resurrection we hymn and glorify. For Thou art our God, and we know none other beside Thee; we call upon Thy name. O come, all ye faithful, let us worship Christ’s holy resurrection: for, behold, through the Cross joy hath come to all the world.
Ever blessing the Lord, we hymn His resurrection; for, having endured crucifixion, He hath destroyed death by death.
11 Величит душа моя Господа Velichit dusha moya Gospoda
My soul doth magnify the Lord Velichit dusha moya Gospoda, i vozradovasya dukh Moy o Boze Spase Moyem.
Chestneyshuyu Kheruvim i slavneyshuyu bez sravneniya Serafim, bez istleniya Boga Slova rozhdshuyu, sushchuyu Bogoroditsu, Tya velichayem. Yako prizre na smireniye raby Svoyeya, se bo otnyne ublazhat Mya vsi rodi.
Chestneyshuyu Kheruvim … Yako sotvori Mne velichiye Silny, i svyato imya Yego, i milost Yego v rody rodov boyashchimsya Yego.
Chestneyshuyu Kheruvim … Nizlozhi silnyya so presto i voznese smirennyya; alchushchiya ispolni blag i bogatyashchiyasya otpusti tshchi.
Chestneyshuyu Kheruvim … Vospriyat Izrailya otroka Svoyego, pomyanuti milosti, yakozhe glagola ko ottsem nashim, Avraamu i semeni ego, dazhe do veka.
Chestneyshuyu Kheruvim …
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God My Saviour. More honourable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, Thee do we magnify. For He hath looked upon the lowliness of His handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call Me blessed. More honourable than the Cherubim …
For the Mighty One hath done great things to Me, and holy is His name, and His mercy is on them that fear Him, unto generation and generation. More honourable than the Cherubim …
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted them of low degree; He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. More honourable than the Cherubim … He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever.
More honourable than the Cherubim …
12 Великое славословие (Знаменнаго распева)
Velikoye slavosloviye (Znamennago raspeva)
The Great Doxology (Znamenny chant)
Slava v vyshnikh Bogu, i na zemlyi mir, v chelovetsekh blagovolenie. Khvalim Tya, blagoslovim Tya, klanyayem Ti sya, slavoslovim Tya, blagodarim Tya, velikiya radi slavy Tvoyeya. Gospodi, Tsaryu Nebesny, Bozhe Otche Vsederzhitelyu, Gospodi, Syne Yedinorodny, Iisuse Khriste, i Svyaty Dushe.
Gospodi Bozhe, Agnche Bozhy, Syne Otets, vzemlyay grekh mira, pomiluy nas; vzemlyay grekhi mira, prymi molitvu nashu. Sedyay odesnuyu Ottsa, pomiluy nas. Yako Ty yesi yedin Svyat, Ty yesi yedin Gospod, Iisus Khristos, v slavu Boga Ottsa. Amin. Na vsyak den blagoslovlyu Tya i voskhvalyu imya Tvoye vo veki i v vek veka.
Spodobi, Gospodi, v den sey bez grekha sokhranitisya nam.
Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi, v den sey bez grekha sokhranitisya nam. Budi, Gospodi, milost, Tvoya na nas, yakozhe upovakhom na Tya. Pomiluy mya. Istseli dushu moyu. Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi, nauchi mya opravdaniyem Tvoim.
K Tebe pribegokh.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.
We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory.
O Lord, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty,
O Lord, the Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy on us; Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord. Keep us this day without sin.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee. Have mercy on me. Heal my soul.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes. Unto Thee have I fled for refuge.
Gospodi, pribezhishche byl yesi nam v rod i rod.
Az rekh: Gospodi, pomiluy mya, istseli dushu moyu, yako sogreshikh Tebe. Gospodi, nauchi mya tvoriti volyu Tvoyu, yako Ty yesi Bog moy: yako u Tebe istochnik zhibota, vo svete Tvoyem uzrim svet. Probavi milost Tvoyu vedushchim Tya.
Svyaty Bozhe, Svyaty Krepky, Svyaty Bezsmertny, pomiluy nas.
Slava Ottsu i Synu i Svyatomu Dukhu, i nyne i prisno i vo veki vekov. Amin. Svyaty Bezsmertny, pomiluy nas. Svyaty Bozhe, Svyaty Krepky, Svyaty Bezsmertny, pomiluy nas.
Lord, Thou hast been our refuge in generation and generation.
I said: O Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.
O Lord, teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God: for in Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.
O continue Thy mercy unto them that know Thee.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
13 Тропар. Днесь спасение (Знаменнаго распева)
Tropar. Dnes spaseniye (Znamennago raspeva)
Troparion. Today is salvation come (Znamenny chant)
Dnes spaseniye miru byst, poyem Voskresshemu iz groba i Nachalniku zhizni nasheya: pazrushiv bo smertiyu smert, pobedu dade nam i veliyu milost.
Today is salvation come unto the world, let us sing praises to Him that arose from the tomb and is the Author of our life: for, having destroyed death by death, He hath given us the victory, and great mercy.
14 Тропар. Воскрес из гроба (Знаменнаго распева)
Tropar. Voskres iz groba (Znamennago raspeva)
Troparion. Having risen from the tomb (Znamenny chant)
Voskres iz groba i uzy rasterzal yesi ada, razrushil yesi osuzhdeniye smerti, Gospodi, vsya ot setey vraga izbavivy; yavivy zhe Sebe apostolom Tvoim, poslal yesi ya na propoved, i temi mir Tvoy podal yesi vselenney, yedine Mnogomilostive.
Having risen from the tomb and having burst the bonds of Hades, Thou hast destroyed the sentence of death, O Lord, delivering all from the snares of the enemy; manifesting Thyself to Thine apostles, Thou didst send them forth to preach, and through them hast granted Thy peace to the world, O Thou Who alone art plenteous in mercy.
15 Взбранной воеводе (Греческаго распева)
Vzbrannoy voyevode (Grecheskago raspeva)
To Thee the champion leader (Greek chant)
Vzbrannoy voyevode pobeditelnaya, yako izbavlshesya ot zlykh, blagodarstvennaya vospisuyem Ty rabi Tvoi, Bogoroditse; no yako imushchaya derzhavu nepobedimuyu, ot vsyakikh nas bed svobodi, da zovem Ti: Raduysya Nevesto Nenevestnaya.
To Thee the champion leader, we Thy servants dedicate a feast of victory and of thanksgiving as ones rescued out of sufferings, O Theotokos: but as Thou art one with might which is invincible, from all dangers that can be do Thou deliver us, that we may cry to Thee: Rejoice, Thou Bride Unwedded!
The Choir of King’s College London is one of the leading university choirs in England, and has existed since its founding by William Henry Monk in the middle of the nineteenth century. The choir today consists of some thirty choral scholars reading a variety of subjects. The choir’s principal role at King’s is to provide music for chapel worship, with weekly Eucharist and Evensong offered during term, as well as various other services. Services from the chapel are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio. The choir also frequently sings for worship outside the university, including at Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. In addition, the choir gives many concert performances. Recent festival appearances in England include the Barnes Music Festival, English Music Festival, London Handel Festival, St Albans International Organ Festival, Thaxted Festival, and the Christmas and Easter Festivals at St John’s Smith Square. Recent collaborations include the UK premiere of Samuel Barber’s The Lovers (chamber version) with Britten Sinfonia at Kings Place, the performance described in The Times as ‘sung beautifully, the voices judiciously blended’, Bach’s St John Passion with the Hanover Band, and Holst’s The Cloud Messenger with the English Chamber Orchestra. The choir tours widely, with recent destinations including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Nigeria and the USA.
The choir has made many recordings, and enjoys an ongoing relationship with Delphian Records. Recent recordings include Lliam Paterson’s Say It to the Still World (a largescale commission for choir and electric guitar, DCD34246), and Edward Nesbit’s Sacred Choral Music (DCD34256), which was a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ in 2022. Future releases with Delphian include a disc of Kerensa Briggs’s choral works (DCD34298).
conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
At King’s, Joseph is responsible for chapel music, conducting the choir in the weekly Eucharist and Evensong services during term, as well as radio broadcasts, concerts and tours. He also serves as Director of Music at St Paul’s Knightsbridge, where he conducts the professional choir.
eighteenth-century music and dance. He is currently completing a monograph on Haydn and minuets. He has published in the Eighteenth-Century Music journal, and has chapters in books with Cambridge University Press and Leipzig University Press. Prior to Harvard, he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was the organ scholar, and at the Royal Academy of Music, who in 2017 elected him to their Associateship.
Following some twenty years under the leadership of David Trendell, the choir has been directed since 2015 by Joseph Fort.
Joseph Fort is a conductor and musicologist based in London. His performances with The Choir of King’s College London have been recognised as ‘English choral singing at its best’ (Choir & Organ), ‘a performance of astonishing intensity and musicality’ (Gramophone), and ‘superbly drilled’ (The Guardian). Orchestras with which he has worked recently include Britten Sinfonia, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Hanover Band. His growing discography with Delphian Records has received considerable critical acclaim. Festival conducting appearances across the world include the Festival de México, the White Nights Festival of St Petersburg, the Montreal Organ Festival, the London Handel Festival, the St Albans International Organ Festival and the
Joseph holds a PhD from Harvard University, and his academic research focuses on
Joseph Fort and the Choir of King’s College London gratefully acknowledge the support of the individuals and institutions who made this project possible. The clergy and staff of All Hallows’, Gospel Oak (in particular, Fr. David Houlding) graciously allowed us to use their church for the recording. The staff of the Dean’s Office of King’s College London (Ellen Clark-King, Tim Ditchfield, Clare Dowding and Natalie Frangos) provided considerable administrative and logistical support.
We are indebted to Tanya Lineker for her language coaching.
Recorded on 25-27 February 2022 in All Hallows’, Gospel Oak
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: Drew Padrutt
Booklet editor: Henry Howard Session photography: foxbrushfilms.com
Cover image: Mafujur Rahman
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com
@ delphianrecords
@ delphianrecords @ delphian_records
The Choir of King’s College London
Soprano
Josie Ashdown*
Paige Broadhurst
Isobel Coughlan
Sabrina Curwen Harrow Choral Scholar
Lucy Ganss
Sarah James Harrow Choral Scholar
Lucy Peek Helen Hudson Choral Scholar
Ksenia Reimchen
Sofia Robinson*
Anna Rodrigues*
Jennifer Spencer
Eileen Lineham Choral Scholar
Katie Walker Alto
Ruby Bak Sheena Jibowu
Finn Lacey**
Caroline Loane**
Hafren Park*
Lily Robson
Trendell Memorial Choral Scholar
April West Helen Hudson Choral Scholar
Marissa White Harrow Choral Scholar
Lorraine Wong
Tenor William Collison**
James David Jaison Jeyaventhan
Chris O’Leary Ouseley Trust Choral Scholar
Daniel Lewis**
Conor Sinclair
Glyn Webster*
Alexander White** Bass
Jacob Abel
Nicholas Bacon Glanfield Choral Scholar
Alfie Evans-Hutchison**
Stephen Fort**
Harry Fradley**
Todd Harris*
Thomas Lane Gough Choral Scholar
Tom Noon* Henry Page** John Sturt** Ricky Taing
* alumni ** guest singers
Language coach
Tanya Lineker
Holst: The Cloud Messenger
The Choir of King’s College London, The Strand Ensemble / Joseph Fort DCD34241
In 1910, after seven years of work, Gustav Holst completed his choral–orchestral masterpiece, The Cloud Messenger. But following a disappointing premiere in 1913 the piece fell into obscurity, and has received only a handful of performances. This crowning glory from the composer’s Sanskrit period deserves to be much better known. Telling the powerful fifth-century story of an exiled yaksha who spies a passing cloud and sends upon it a message of love to his distant wife in the Himalayas, it is rich in its harmonic language and ingenious in its motivic construction, and points the way to Holst’s next major work, The Planets. This colourful chamber version by conductor Joseph Fort lends the more tender passages a new intimacy and clarity, while retaining much of the force of the original.
‘[Fort’s arrangement shows] sensitivity, skill and an evident love for Holst’s visionary, rapturously romantic score ... The singing, too, has a lovely sweetness and purity of tone’ — Gramophone, July 2020
The
In the 1920s Frank Martin, a Swiss Calvinist by upbringing, created a radiant Latin setting of the Mass for double choir, only to return it to the bottom drawer, considering it to be ‘a matter between God and myself’. It was finally released for performance forty years later, around the same time that the Edinburgh-based composer Kenneth Leighton made his own double-choir setting – a work with moments of striking stillness, delightful to choral singers and yet rarely recorded. Contrasts and comparisons abound at every point in this fascinating pairing of Masses from the supposedly godless twentieth century, and are brought out to the full by The Choir of King’s College London’s impassioned performances.
‘a performance of astonishing intensity and musicality’ — Gramophone, May 2019
Brahms: An English Requiem
Mary Bevan, Marcus Farnsworth, The Choir of King’s College London / Joseph Fort; James Baillieu & Richard Uttley (piano four hands)
DCD34195
Since its London premiere in 1871, Brahms’s German Requiem has enjoyed immense popularity in the UK, in both its orchestral and chamber versions. But the setting we know today is not the one that nineteenth-century British audiences knew and loved. The work was rarely performed here in German; rather, it was almost always sung in English translation, with the writer G.A. Macfarren proposing in a widely read text that it should be called An English Requiem. In its sixth Delphian recording, The Choir of King’s College London revives the nineteenth-century English setting in which Brahms’s masterpiece established itself as a favourite among its earliest British audiences. Under its new director Joseph Fort, the choir is joined by pianists James Baillieu and Richard Uttley, and soloists Mary Bevan and Marcus Farnsworth.
‘utterly uplifting’ — Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale, November 2017
Two of Britain’s finest young choirs join forces and cross a continent to give voice to the sublime expressiveness of Rodion Shchedrin’s ‘Russian liturgy’, an astonishing statement of faith composed in the early days of perestroika. Shchedrin’s choral tableaux juxtapose tenderness with bracing sonic impact, and are shadowed throughout by a plangent solo oboe representing the soul of the Russian people.
‘Caught here in fine sound, this is a splendid disc of a multifaceted, many-layered modern masterpiece’
— Gramophone, June 2009, EDITOR’S CHOICE
Kenneth Leighton/Frank Martin: Masses for Double Choir
Choir of King’s College London / Joseph Fort DCD34211
Rodion Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; Choir of King’s College London Geoffrey Webber & David Trendell conductors, Clare Wills oboe DCD34067
Delphian’s superchoir reunites after its highly successful recording of The Sealed Angel, this time for a unique programme of German music from Schubert to Richard Strauss. Strauss’s sumptuous Deutsche Motette is the last word in late Romantic choral opulence, its teeming polyphony brought to thrilling life by this virtuoso cast of over sixty singers. The rest of the programme explores the vivid colours and shadowy half-lights of a distinctly German music that reached its culmination in Strauss’s extravagant masterpiece. The singing throughout combines a musical intensity and imagination with an understanding of period style, two qualities that are hallmarks of both choirs’ work.
‘Credit to conductor David Trendell for eliciting that sustained intensity of expression from his combined college choirs, whose youthful timbre imparts a freshness which … suits the imprecatory nature of Rückert’s poem perfectly’ — BBC Music Magazine, August 2013
Rachmaninov: Songs
Evelina
DCD34127 (3 discs)
This first complete recording for twenty years of Rachmaninov’s published song output (with the addition of two delightfully comic occasional pieces) lays two further claims to importance: our seven singers – hand-picked by renowned pianist Iain Burnside – are all native Russian speakers, and every song is performed in the key in which Rachmaninov wrote it, respecting both the specificity of vocal colour and the carefully designed tonal and expressive trajectory within each opus. For the first twenty-five years of his career Rachmaninov regularly expressed himself in song, from Tchaikovskian beginnings to the extraordinarily personal range of vocal and pianistic utterance in his final two collections. Almost a century after exile brought down the curtain on this period of his creative output, Burnside and his singers bring these works to shimmering, gushing, crackling, magnificent life.
‘seven phenomenal young singers … Burnside remains a firm, clear companion throughout’
— BBC Music Magazine, May 2014, CHORAL & SONG CHOICE
DCD34191
Rachmaninov, last of the great Romantic composers, and Stravinsky, whose early scores for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes revolutionised the musical world, had a shared fascination for the traditional music of their homeland. Rachmaninov’s early masterpiece, the Six morceaux, Op. 11, already exhibits the sweep and grandeur of his maturity, while Stravinsky’s arrangement of Petrushka reveals this glittering ballet anew in a tour de force of pianistic virtuosity. Tchaikovsky’s hauntingly exquisite transcriptions of Russian folksongs, meanwhile, include two melodies later used by Stravinsky in The Firebird and Petrushka. Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith together explore every facet of the art of the piano duet in performances of truly exceptional power, delicacy and authority. ‘strangely hypnotic … a gripping account’ — Sunday Times, September 2017
‘a richly rewarding and fascinating set … The star of the show is undoubtedly Burnside, playing throughout with unfailing intensity and sensitivity: voice and piano are truly equal partners here, and the results are electrifying’ — Daily Telegraph, February 2014
‘[Burnside] recognises the integral expressive role of the piano in these songs … Sung gloriously with palpable heart and soul’
— Gramophone, May 2014, EDITOR’S CHOICE
Shortlisted in the Vocal category at the 2014 Gramophone Awards
Russian Works for Piano Four Hands Peter Hill & Benjamin Frith
Deutsche Motette Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; The Choir of King’s College London, Geoffrey Webber & David Trendell conductors DCD34124
Dobraceva soprano, Ekaterina Siurina soprano, Justina Gringyte mezzosoprano, Daniil Shtoda tenor, Andrei Bondarenko baritone, Rodion Pogossov baritone, Alexander Vinogradov bass, Iain Burnside piano
