PaTRAM Institute Male Choir - Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

In 1971, Einojuhani Rautavaara was asked to compose a Finnish Orthodox church service, an all-night vigil similar to that of Rachmaninov, comprising Vespers as well as Matins. Soon after the first performance he reshaped the music into what we now know as Vigilia, a concert version forming a musical whole. As his inspiration, Rautavaara has himself described a visit to the Valamo monastery in the middle of Lake Ladoga in 1939 'The bells began to ring, low-pitched booms and higher, shrill clinks the world was filled with sounds and colors...' The music is marked by dark colors, the heady smell of incense and the crepuscular church lit only by small candles. Divided into two parts, Vespers and Matins, the 70-minute work consists of 34 sections, and features prominent parts for a bass and a tenor soloist, as well as a number of solo voices emerging from the mixed choir. The work is enriched by the constantly changing combinations of choir and soloists, the perspective shifting from the personal to the universal. It is here performed by the 21-strong Helsinki Chamber Choir, under it's artistic director Nils Schweckendiek - a team that has made several recordings for BIS in recent years. These include Riemuitkaamme!, a Christmas album ('Schweckendiek's immaculately blended singers make a glorious noise', The Arts Desk), as well as a two-album survey of the choral works of Finnish modernist Erik Bergman ('The Helsinki choir produces a radiant sound throughout', Choir & Organ).

Rachmaninov / Rundfunkchor / Fink - Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/11/2016

Cappella Records proudly announces the of Robert Kyr's All-Night Vigil, performed by Cappella Romana, directed by founder and music director Alexander Lingas. Robert Kyr's All-Night Vigil takes it's formal inspiration from Sergei Rachmaninoff, who in 1915 set the same 15 selections from the Orthodox vigil for the Resurrection. Here Robert Kyr employs an English translation of those selections by the late Archmandrite Ephrem (Lash), to whom this Vigil is dedicated. Kyr blends Byzantine and Slavic musical traditions with a distinctly personal idiom, granting a fresh approach for those familiar with these texts, and a deeply moving point of entry for those encountering them for the first time. Classical Net on Cappella Romana's 2014 recording of Robert Kyr's A Time For Life InchThere is perhaps no choir that can sing this kind of music more beautifully than Cappella Romana... singing with real emotion and depth... which requires no religion to enjoy, but only heart and soul.Inch Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in it's exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West, embracing Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (InchNew RomeInch) and it's Slavic commonwealth.