A Little Late Night Music
Thursday 19 July 2007, 9.00pm
Winchester Cathedral Quire
Sergei
Rachmaninov Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (Op.31)
Having performed Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil (better
known in the West as the Vespers) to great acclaim in
recent years, Southern Voices' offering in this year’s
Festival was his earlier choral masterpiece, the Liturgy of
St John Chrysostom.
Composed in 1910, this work combines the majestic
sound-world and truly Russian sensibility of the sacred
music tradition of his native land with Rachmaninov’s
deeply personal and characteristic musical expressiveness.
The result is a luminous work whose breadth of scale seems
to evoke the vastness of the Russian landscape.
Originally conceived to be sung in the context of worship,
Southern Voices performed the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
in a concert version lasting around one hour.
What the critics said:
"the 40 singers of Southern Voices rose brilliantly to the challenge" Hampshire Chronicle>>more...