Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vespers (All-Night Vigil, Opus 37)

Overview

"Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vespers - the crowning achievement of the Golden Age of Russian Orthodox sacred choral music."   On May 9th, The Worcester Chorus will perform Rachmaninoff's Vespers (All-Night Vigil, Opus 37) - the Russian masterwork for a cappella chorus - at Worcester's breathtaking and inspiring Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  This concert is the last of the Music Worcester 149th Season, marks the farewell concert of Worcester Chorus Music Director Andrew Clark, and features the celebrated tenor Thomas Cooley.

From the late 1800s until the Russian Revolution in 1917, several Russian composers took a particular interest in developing classical choral music with a uniquely mystical Russian flavor, using ancient and medieval chants from the Russian Orthodox Church as their source and inspiration.  The best known of these works is Rachmaninoff's rich and mystical Vespers, based upon music from the sunset and sunrise Orthodox services.

Related Sites

• Tenor Soloist Thomas Cooley web site
• Worcester Chorus web site

Program

Programme

"We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty."
So wrote the envoys of Vladimir I, experiencing for the first time the divine liturgy at the church of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 987. It was this visit that led directly to the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church the following year. Yet the origins of this branch of Christianity go back far further than this: indeed, it can lay claim to being the oldest manifestation of the church of Peter.

The story begins in Greece. Greek was the medium of international communication in the early centuries; the Hebrew scriptures were transmitted to the rest of the world via Hellenistic Alexandria; Paul wrote in Greek to the early churches and until the third century the liturgy of the church was in Greek. However, the early formation of what we now recognise as the Orthodox Church dates from 320 when Emperor Constantine shifted the seat of imperialism from Rome to Constantinople. In the following eight centuries the region witnessed major advances in social, intellectual and cultural life. Eight ecumenical councils met in Constantinople between 325 and 787 to determine the structure and doctrine of modern Christianity, including the concepts of the trinity and divine incarnation. Of particular significance for the Orthodox Church were the veneration of Mary as mother of God and the adoption of icons as visible symbols of God's taking human form in Christ.

At the same time, Byzantine liturgy was taking shape. To an extent, it was the formulation of the liturgy that precipitated the schism with Rome. When the Roman pope refused to recognise Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople in the 9th century, Photius responded by challenging the pope's authority over the inclusion of the ‘filioque' clause in the creed. Missionaries from Constantinople converted the Slavs and many parts of Eastern Europe to Christianity - amongst them Bulgaria in 864, Russia in 988 - and part of this process involved the translation of the Greek rite into the vernacular. Thus the old church Slavonic texts set by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and others are directly linked to this early expansion.

Further schism with Rome in 1054 and the sacking of Constantinople in the first Crusade (1204) led to an irrevocable separation between the two major branches of Christianity. Whilst Western forms of Christianity continued to evolve - and splinter into different factions - the Orthodox tradition has been preserved largely intact. It remains the established religion in Greece; the largest populations of Orthodox Christians are in Russia and Romania, and this despite the church's persecution under an intolerant Communist regime - which only lifted in the Gorbachev era.

The music of the Orthodox Church is exclusively vocal; no instruments of any kind are permitted. The oldest chant of the Russian tradition is known as znamenny - the word derives from the Slavonic znamia (sign) which is cognate with the Western neume. The chant's earliest forms in the pre-Mongol period are well documented in approximately twenty-five manuscript sources, yet these are all but indecipherable now, dependent as they are on a subtle and sophisticated understanding of complex rules of melodic invention. Later interpretations (from the mid-15th to the late-17th centuries) are however well preserved, thanks in part to the annotations found in manuscripts - the so-called ‘cinnabar' annotations, which are written in red above the melodic signs, and indicate the starting pitches of the melodic units.

The melody of znamenny chant is extremely simple. It started as a purely monodic style, usually unornamented, moving almost exclusively by step following and speech intonation. Although this allows maximum clarity of the sung text, the chant could be decorated with a variety of celebratory patterns for festive occasions. By the 17th century the melodic line, in the tenor, might be harmonised by other voices. In the 19th century there developed a kind of complex vocal ‘orchestration', of which the most significant exponents were from the Moscow Synodal School - Katalsky and Chesnokov. This involved highly developed vocal technique, exploiting a wide tessitura for all voices, but especially parts for strong low basses and altos, combined with high tenor and (to a lesser extent) soprano lines. This kind of textural variety was the only way in which composers could add expressive colour to the music. Glinka and Tchaikovsky to some extent step outside the rigid confines of traditional chant, adding characteristic harmonic effects and greater metrical regularity, but Rachmaninoff consciously preserves the modal purity of the originals he uses. Rachmaninoff creates variety in his rather more ‘orthodox' Orthodox settings by relying instead on divisi voice parts and dynamic contrasts.

The All-Night Vigil

"Our fathers did not wish to receive the grace of evening light in silence; rather, they offered thanks as soon as it appeared."
St Basil the Great, 4th century

The all-night vigil is celebrated on the eve of the main feasts of the Orthodox Church. Originally it lasted all night from 6 pm on Saturday night through to 9 am on Sunday morning, and it consists of three separate services: Great Vespers, Matins (at midnight) and the First Hour or Prime (in the morning). By the end of the 19th century this had been reduced to a service lasting a mere three hours.

The purpose of the vigil is to show a sense of beauty in the setting sun and give the congregation a chance to consider the spiritual light of Christ, the new light of the coming day and the eternal light of the heavenly kingdom. Great Vespers begins in silence, with a cruciform censing of the altar - one of the most profound moments of Orthodox liturgy, representing eternal rest and the silence before Creation. There follows a sequence of hymns, readings, chants and prayers, providing an analogy of the way in which paradise was returned to mankind by the redeeming sacrifice of Christ. Music of course plays a part in this liturgy, as a vehicle for the sacred texts - the words are always paramount and the austerity of the music reflects this.

Rachmaninoff's setting of the All-Night Vigil (Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye op. 37) was written in January and February 1915, in the middle of the first world war, when Rachmaninoff was 41. During this period Rachmaninoff was travelling throughout Russia with Serge Koussevitsky, giving concerts in aid of the war against Germany. He had already completed one choral work in this vein (the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom of 1910 following Tchaikovsky's example of 1879) but the Vigil is more elaborately worked out and more intense in its expression. He used authentic znamenny chant in seven movements; two movements employ Greek chants; and in the remaining movements he constructed what he described as a ‘conscious counterfeit of the original'. The piece is dedicated to the scholar Stephan Vasilevitch Smolensky (1849-1909) who had introduced the composer to the repertoire of the church when he was at the Moscow conservatoire. Yet Rachmaninoff's inspiration was as much politically motivated as anything else - the composition was a powerful affirmation of nationalism during the war.

The first performance on 10 March 1915 was given not liturgically but in a fund-raising concert by the Moscow Synodal Choir, directed by Nicolai Danilin. It was extremely well received and had to be repeated four times during the concert season.

‘Even in my dreams I could not have imagined that I would write such a work,' Rachmaninoff told the singers at the first performance. Hearing this extraordinary piece of music, not a frozen edifice of austere musical architecture but a vibrant and powerfully emotional manifestation of religious experience, it is surely possible to understand precisely how he felt.

Vestchernya - Vespers

1 The work begins with the word Amin (amen), responding to the Great Litany, which would have been chanted by the priest. Then there is a fourfold call to prayer, in six and then eight parts.

2 This movement consists of a truncated version of Psalm 103 (104), in which an alto solo sings a melody based on Greek chant against a background of tenor and bass, alternating with soft passages for soprano and alto. During this psalm the whole church is censed.

3 The text of this movement comes from Psalm 1, the verses alternating with Alliluya (alleluia). The verses are mainly sung by middle voices (alto and tenor) and the refrain by the full choir.

4 This is the Evening Hymn of Light (phos hilaron), which is one of the most ancient hymns of the Orthodox Church. The text is from Psalm 140 (141). During the singing of this psalm all the lights of the church are gradually illuminated and the priest and deacon enter the Holy of Holies. Here, the melody is a Kiev chant using only four notes, sung by the tenors.

5 Perhaps the most famous and certainly the most extraordinary of the Vigil movements, this setting of the Song of Simeon (Luke 2: 29-32) is the high point of Vespers. The text is said by the priest whenever a child is received into the church. Rachmaninoff was particularly fond of this movement and wanted it at his funeral, but this wish was not granted because no place could be found for it in the funeral service. Against a gently rocking background, the tenor solo sings a Kiev chant. At the end of the movement the basses descend step by step to a low B flat in what is one of the most impressive passages in the whole work.

6 The last movement of Vespers is a Hymn to the Mother of God: it occurs in many places in Orthodox worship and here the threefold setting is very solemn but full of rejoicing and gladness. After this all the lights are dimmed and the doors to the Holy of Holies are closed.

Utrenya - Matins

7 The start of Matins is a chorus in praise of God, which precedes the reading of the Six Psalms expressing man's sense of loss and separation from God. This setting is full of the sound of bells as the word Slava (‘praise') is reiterated. The silence that follows this chorus in the service is deeply moving.

8 This section, ‘Praise ye the name of the Lord', with words from Psalm 135 (136), is called Polyeleos. This term means both ‘much mercy' and ‘much oil' - the latter because the lamps are lit once again. This is a moment of reconciliation with God and the priest again censes the whole church. Rachmaninoff uses a znamenny chant in octaves for altos and basses, marking the music spiritoso.

9 The Evlogitaria is a series of stanzas in praise of the Resurrection and one of the longest sections of the Vigil (around 7 minutes). The refrain (Slava otsu i sinu - ‘Blessed art thou O Lord') was used by Rachmaninoff at the end of his life in his Symphonic Dances.

10 There follows a Gospel reading and this movement is sung immediately afterwards as the book is brought out for the people to kiss. This is Rachmaninoff's own chant, using wide contrasts of register and dynamics.

11 This is the Magnificat, the text from Luke 1 46-55. Mary's words (strangely enough given to the bass at first) alternate with an antiphon ‘More honourable than the cherubim ...', which begins in various different keys but always cadences in B flat.

12 The climax of Matins, and in a true all-night Vigil this would coincide with the sunrise - the priest starts with the exclamation, ‘Glory to Thee who has shown us the light'. Rachmaninoff's setting of the words of the Gloria begins with znamenny chant. There is then a sequence of contrasted sections containing some of the most rhythmically and harmonically complex music of the Vigil.

13 and 14 These two Resurrection hymns are not both sung in one service: they alternate according to the prevailing tone of the chant for that week. Both are based on znamenny chants, the second slightly longer and richer harmonically.

Pervy tchas - First Hour

15 The Vigil ends with another hymn to the Virgin, called the Akathist Hymn because the people stand throughout (akathistos means ‘without sitting'). This is part of Prime (the ‘first hour'). The priest chants the liturgy on one note and the choir joins with the kontakion - in Rachmaninoff's setting a brilliantly scored and lively movement which ends the All-Night Vigil in a suitably splendid fashion.

 

 

 

About the Artists

Thomas Cooley has been praised for his clear, supple, lyrical, powerful and expressive voice. This, combined with his musicianship and sense of style makes him equally at home on the opera, concert and recital stages. As an operatic performer, his repertoire ranges from Monteverdi and Händel, through Mozart and Rossini, to the present day. In May of 1998 he made his Bavarian State Opera debut in the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn's Was ihr wollt. Other roles include Count Almaviva in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Oronte in Handel's Alcina, Ugone in Händel's Flavio, Nerone in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio and Leandro in Busoni's Arlecchino. Mr. Cooley has been engaged since 2002 at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, where he has been singing such roles as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the title role in Idomeneo as well as the role of Felix Nightingale in the Baroque Pasticcio Ein Theater nach der Mode, and where he recently sang Count Almaviva in the premiere of Claus Guth's new production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia to great critical acclaim.

As a concert performer, Thomas Cooley appears on an international level, appearing in many of the great concert halls of Europe and the U.S. He appears regularly with major orchestras and ensembles such as the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as with leading Baroque orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and the Akadamie für Alte Musik Berlin. His concert repertoire encompasses a wide range of works, but centers around the great works of Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Britten, whereby the Evangelist in Bach's Passions and the great oratorios of Handel, such as Jephtha, Samson and Judas Maccabeus figure most prominently. He performs internationally with conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nicholas McGegan, Bruno Weil, Joshua Rifkin, Markus Stenz, Enoch zu Guttenberg, and Manfred Honeck. Recent important engagements include the Swiss premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's new Lukas Passion setting, Deus Passus with Helmuth Rilling, as well as Ramirez's Misa criolla with the Munich MottetenChor in Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

Important engagements of the past season include Mozart's C-minor Mass and J.S. Bach's Magnificat with Helmuth Rilling and the Minnesota Orchestra, Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with the Berliner Singakademie, Handel's Samson in Nuremberg, Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, Handel's only cantata for tenor: Look Down, Harmonious Saint with Nicholas McGegan at the Handel Festival in Göttingen and Britten's War Requiem with the Munich Bach Choir under Ralf Otto. Of his debut in the Cologne Philharmonie as the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, one reviewer wrote, "Especially Thomas Cooley stood out among the strong soloists. A better Evangelist, with such intensity and sensibility, can hardly be imagined." He has been a soloist on numerous radio and CD recordings. Recent CD recordings include Handel's Athalia with Peter Neumann and the Kölner Kammerchor (MDG), Felix Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht with the Münchener Motettenchor (Weltbild) and the world premiere recording of Vivaldi's newly re-discovered Dixit Dominus for Deutsche Grammophone.

This season's concerts include Britten's War Requiem with the Munich MotettenChor, Mozart's Requiem with the Windsbacher Knabenchor in Barcelona, Mozart's Messias and C minor Mass at the Göttingen Händelfestspiele, Mozart's Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots with the North German Radio Orchestra, Hannover, Mendelssohn's St. Paul at the Dresden Music Festival and Bach's St. Matthew Passion in the Kreuzkirche in Dresden. Important upcoming engagements include the Christmas Oratorio with Nicolas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, the arias of the St. John Passion with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a European tour of Bach's Magnificat and Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël with the Windsbacher Knabenchor und Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus with the Calgary Philharmonic.

The art of the song recital is particularly important to the young tenor. A recording of German Christmas songs with the guitarist Carsten Linck was released on CD in 2000. He performed a recital of Britten's Winter Words and Still Falls the Rain at the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh with pianist Andrew West, with whom he will also perform Vaughn Williams' On Wenlock Edge at the International Chamber Music Festival in Nuremberg. With Nicolas McGegan, he will perform Irish and Scottish folksongs of Haydn and Beethoven at the Göttingen Handel Festival this June. He also performs regularly with the pianist Donald Sulzen, with whom he has recorded Britten's Holy Sonnets of John Donne for the Bavarian Radio.