Amazing pieces of classical music - 12

Let me now mentioned a religious choral masterwork that a non-church going Russian once composed before the Bolsjevic takeover of his country, one of his most beloved creations and an absolute true indication of what it means to be Russian. This posting in my little series is entirely due to the knowledge of a fellow traveler on here who suggested the choral piece to me a couple of days ago. My admiration for both her and the composer went far, but now it goes even further.

The All-Night Vigil (too often mis-tranlated as simply Vespers because that would go only up to the sixth of fifteen movements) is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff (Op. 37), premiered on 23th March 1915 in Moscow. When the composer initially played the fifth movement, the Nunc Dimittis, through to the conductors in preparation for its first performance, he recalled : "Danilin shook his head, saying, "Now where on earth are we to find such basses? They are as rare as asparagus at Christmas!" Nevertheless, he did find them. I knew the voices of my countrymen..."

Here's this particular movement (sung on Rachmaninoff's own request at his own funeral by the way) in a performance of 2005 with Paul Hillier conducting a really marvelous Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir that brought the always somewhat more Western point of the dial back to its Eastern orgines and showing everyone that we are all Europeans nevertheless

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