Faithful to the letter and the spirit
The warm and rich-toned choir gives an engaging and uplifting performance
Peter Jermihov (conductor)
Gloriae Dei Cantores Paraclete Recordings GDCD 063 It’s been often claimed that Sveshnikov’s 1965 recording – considered by many the best all-round among Soviet and Russian productions – is somehow ‘authentic’. Which is remarkable, since his USSR State Academic Russian Choir was essentially a radio ensemble that regularly performed Soviet mass songs and opera choruses rather than liturgical music. While there’s no denying the impressive sound and heft of its basses, in several respects the choir’s sound and style – with its often woeful, wavering tenors, and its sopranos over-sentimentalising the music with ‘expressive’ scoops between notes – would have dismayed leading choir trainers of Rachmaninov’s time.
Today, thanks to scholars such as Vladimir Morosan, we know a great deal more about the choral style Rachmaninov expected. Meanwhile, several recent recordings match the best Russian choirs for vocal heft and outclass them in accurate pitching and ensemble while also showing a greater awareness of the performance tradition Rachmaninov wrote for.
Best of these is Peter Jermihov’s 2017 recording, involving the combined forces of the American Gloriae Dei Cantores and voices from Saint Romanos Cappella, Patriarch Tikhon Choir and the Washington Master Chorale. The resulting choir is a bit smaller than what Rachmaninov had in mind, yet the sopranos and altos’ relatively powerful adult voices easily balance the superb lower male voices, of which the bass section includes no fewer than seven basso profundos (or ‘octavists’), far more than were available for the work’s premiere.
The performance’s authentic Slavic flavour is further enhanced by the impressive bass of Vadim Gan singing the Deacon’s part, and by two soloists from the National Opera of Ukraine, mezzo Mariya Berezovska and tenor Dmitry Ivanchenko.
In the generous resonance of Orleans’s Church of the Transfiguration – captured in atmospheric sound, particularly on SACD – the choir sounds warm and rich-toned, yet with the altos summoning a clarion edge for their first entry in the dramatic Resurrection sequence
(No. 9). The practicalities of performing in such an acoustic means that some of Rachmaninov’s dynamic contrasts can appear rather muted; and tempos are a touch on the stately side, though in No. 8 this accentuates the bell-like accents. Altogether, this is an engaging and uplifting performance.