Rachmaninov Vespers: Why I Cried

In August of 2014, yours truly, along with my favorite choir on Earth, Choral Arts Philadelphia, was getting ready for the second performance of one piece of music that holds an exclusive special place in my heart: Vespers (All Night Vigil, Op. 37) by Sergey Rachmaninov.  

Besides cherishing my native connection to the Russian music and unsurpassed love for Sergey Rachmaninov as a person and a composer, I treasure this choral a capella piece because it was the culprit of a profound life-altering event not so long ago.

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During the first 24 years of my life in Soviet Russia, after having studied classical piano, singing, music theory and history at a full-time regional music school for eight years, I had no idea about the existence of the Vespers or any other sacred vocal music by any other composer whatsoever. This is how well this information was locked away from public eye in the Soviet Union. And when one doesn't know about existence of something, one doesn't look for it. 

Now, let's fast forward to January 1991, my very first weeks in Philadelphia, USA where I had been brought to interpret for a group of Moscow dancers during their East Coast tour. The day I got my first paycheck, I went straight to one of the Tower Records (remember those?) to look for CDs and cassette tapes (remember those?) of two of my most favorite composers: Sergey Rachmaninov and J.S. Bach.

As I searched through the volumes of the Bach and Rachmaninov recordings, I came across some odd never-before-heard-of titles like St. Matthew Passion, B-Minor Mass, Vespers, The Bells. “What’s this?” – I said to myself in total bewilderment, because I knew of every piece of music those guys ever composed. Out of pure curiosity, I purchased the Vespers recording, brought it to my hotel and played it immediately on my Walkman (remember those?)... 

And I cried.

I cried because I felt deeply betrayed. I cried because I felt so much pain and hurt for my people's depravity of history and truth. Then I cried some more because life was SO MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL than I had imagined. And it was all because the humanity had the gift of the Vespers all along! 

During the Vespers Liturgy service on Christmas Eve at an Orthodox church.

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, restored by public funding in 1995-2000. Moscow, Russia.

Ironically, in that same year, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Orthodox Christmas was finally officially announced as a national holiday in Russia. It was openly celebrated for the first time in over 70 years, on January 6, 1992. The Rachmaninov Vespers was performed in a public concert in Moscow on that first Christmas Eve.

This landmark event was followed by the massive country-wide immersion of Orthodox Christian culture into Russia's life: from the restoration of collapsed and destroyed cathedrals and revival of industrial production of church bells - to religious education, faith-based literature publications and declassification of myriad archival church documents. This inevitably meant that the sacred music, and with it all other world's music for sacred occasions, that had been muted in Russia for generations, was legally given back to the people it had been written for.

Every time I get to sing this work - and this will be my third time - it is a transcending life event, an experience of the highest spiritual order which simply can't be described in words but only felt with heart.

Singing it here in the U.S., along with my non-Russian speaking choir friends, for the grateful American audiences, fills me with greatest joy, honor and gratitude for their responsive energy, their respect for this music and their thirst to hear more of it. 

In 2012, we performed The Vespers at the magnificent space of Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Here is my favorite excerpt:

This landmark event was followed by the massive country-wide immersion of Orthodox Christian culture into Russia's life: from the restoration of collapsed and destroyed cathedrals and revival of industrial production of church bells - to religious education, faith-based literature publications and declassification of myriad archival church documents. This inevitably meant that the sacred music, and with it all other world's music for sacred occasions, that had been muted in Russia for generations, was legally given back to the people it had been written for.

Every time I get to sing this work - and this will be my third time - it is a transcending life event, an experience of the highest spiritual order which simply can't be described in words but only felt with heart.

Singing it here in the U.S., along with my non-Russian speaking choir friends, for the grateful American audiences, fills me with greatest joy, honor and gratitude for their responsive energy, their respect for this music and their thirst to hear more of it. 

In 2012, we performed The Vespers at the magnificent space of Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Here is my favorite excerpt:

[BLOG REPOSTED FROM August, 2014]