Bach Choir tackles Rachmaninoff’s ‘All-Night Vigil’
The Chattanooga Bach Choir will present two performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All Night Vigil” this weekend sung in its original Russian.
The first performance is Saturday evening, Jan. 26, at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. The second will be Sunday, Jan. 27, at 4 p.m. in St. David’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, Georgia.
“Among the most beautiful and deeply moving works for unaccompanied chorus, ‘The Vigil’ casts a spiritual spell through its serene harmonies and low bass voices. The newly renovated Basilica will be the perfect venue for this performance,” says Suzanne Ford, spokeswoman for the choir.
“We are thrilled to perform Rachmaninoff’s monumental ‘All-Night Vigil,’ which is considered a crowning achievement of Russian Orthodox choral music,” says David Long, Bach Choir’s artistic director.
“Regarded as one of the most challenging works in the a cappella choral repertory, it makes technical demands on singers’ intonation and breath control, and requires a complete engagement with the language and the texts,” he describes.
For these concerts, the choir will be joined by members of Voci Virili Men’s Consort and Voice of Reason Women’s Ensemble, both directed by Harv Wileman.
Featured soloists will be mezzo-soprano Rosella Ewing, a frequent Chattanooga Symphony & Opera and Bach Choir soloist and professor at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock; and tenor Blaine Tooley of Memphis, a frequent soloist with Voci Virili, as well as former music director at Hixson United Methodist Church.
The texts of the work are taken from the Russian Orthodox all-night vigil ceremony celebrated on the eve of great feasts and lasting from vespers at dusk through midnight matins until Prime at dawn. Nine of its 15 sections are based on traditional Orthodox chants from various traditions – the ancient Russian Známenny chant, a recitational Greek style and Kiev chant from the 16th and 17th centuries.
“Among the composer’s own compositions, the ‘All-Night Vigil’ was one of his favorites, along with ‘The Bells.’ One hundred years later, this reflective and deeply moving work is beloved by choirs worldwide and remains a masterpiece of Russian choral music,” Long says.
For more information: www.chattanoogabachchoir.org.