Rachmaninoff Vespers

One of the most challenging pieces in the a cappella repertory, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s monumental Vespers is regarded as the last great crowning achievement of Russian Orthodox choral music, a masterpiece from a composer at the peak of his creative powers. Rachmaninoff ‘s love of Orthodox Church music began at the age of ten, when accompanying his devout maternal grandmother to the churches of St Petersburg. During the winter of 1914-15, following Russia’s disastrous Battle of Tannenberg, Rachmaninoff was filled with a desire to create a work true to the spirit of those fondly remembered Orthodox services. The work was composed in less than two weeks and premiered in 1915. Rachmaninoff loved his Vespers above all his other works. He wove every human emotion through its movements; praise, meditation, penitence and, finally, proclamation. Radiant, impassioned and rooted in a deep and heartfelt faith, the first performance of the Vespers gave the composer ‘an hour of the most complete satisfaction’, bringing him profound consolation in the depths of the First World War.