S. Rachmaninov - All-Night Vigil - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Rachmaninov - Vespers [SUPER-AUDIO CD] Hybrid SACD date 04/29/2014

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.

This album presents a sequel for the award-winning album (ICMA Choral disc of the year) of Tchaikovsky's sacred choral works by the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Sigvards Klava. These two albums together form the composer's complete sacred works for the choir. The All-Night Vigil Op. 52 for mixed choir, also known as the Vesper Service, was written between May 1881 and March 1882. It was first performed by the Chudovsky Chorus conducted by Pyotr Sakharov in Moscow at the concert hall of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition on 27 June 1882. Tchaikovsky described the work as 'An essay in harmonization of liturgical chants.' For this work the composer carefully studied the tradition of musical practice in the Russian Orthodox Church, which could vary considerably from one region to another. This beautiful, yet rarely recorded work is accompanied by four other choral works all written during the same decade Hymn in Honour of Saints Cyril and Methodius as part of commemorations of the 1000th anniversary of the death of Saint Methodius, A Legend, originally coming from the collection Sixteen Songs for Children, Jurists' Song, for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St Petersburg, and The Angel Cried Out, a beautiful traditional Russian Orthodox Easter hymn and Tchaikovsky's final choral work.