Orpheus
Choir of Toronto Presents Stirring Melodies and Emotions of Rachmaninoff’s
Vespers
Toronto, ON – The
Orpheus Choir of Toronto and Artistic Director Robert Cooper, C.M. are pleased
to announce Vespers, the third concert of the choir’s 45th
season, On this occasion, the Orpheus
Choir joins with the award-winning Guelph Chamber Choir and conductor Gerald
Neufeld to perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s lushly sonorous Vespers, or All-Night
Vigil, in the beautiful Byzantine setting of St. Anne’s Anglican Church in
Toronto.
One
hundred voices combine to present the intricate harmony and sonority of the Vespers,
based on the evening prayer service of the Eastern Christian
Orthodox Church and sung in the original Old Church Slavonic. By turns
haunting, serene, and magnificent, Rachmaninoff’s Vespers combines
unaccompanied sacred texts with stirring melodies, rich bass lines, and moving
expressions of spiritual awe. Drawing
on ancient chants and liturgy dating from the 14th Century, this
glorious Russian choral masterpiece is one of the 20th Century’s
greatest choral works.
In
an interview with The New Pathway, Robert Cooper stated that the
challenge for the choir was to master the phonetic sounds of the text, clearly
enunciating the words with attention to diction. Rachmaninoff’s Vespers
lends itself to sonority although enveloped in delicate and lush harmonies.
Cooper added that the work, however, requires a big open sound and its
performance is by the combined Orpheus and Guelph Chamber Choirs, the latter
conducted by his close colleague Gerald Neufeld.
Robert
Cooper continued by explaining that indeed Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (1915)
is from the Early 20th Century but has its roots going back to
compositions of the 17th and 18th Centuries and such
composers as Dmytro Bortniansky, Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir, a
notable Ukrainian composer and the first director not to have been imported
from outside of the Russian Empire. Vespers remains true to original
Orthodox chant tones and melodies. Maintaining reverent character and piety of
a religious service, the composer, however, developed Vespers with
harmony work reflecting the pastiche of Rachmaninoff.
In
his interview remarks, Cooper expressed his pleasure in being able to
complement the programme, offering Baltic and Canadian choral works to complete
the choral experience that started with Rachmaninoff’s work. The current
meditative works are similar in tonal character lending themselves to a
meditative chant, however, written with melodies and tonal development in the
ethos of the 21 Century. This “spirit of choral mysticism” is enhanced by the
transcendent Dona Nobis Pacem by Latvian Peteris Vasks along with
Latvian Eriks Esenvalds’ sublime setting of Amazing Grace. Canadian
composer Rupert Lang’s Kontakion or Prayer for the Dead, as well
as, O Great Mystery by Timothy Corlis remain part and share in the
concert’s “spirit of choral mysticism”. These works complete the circle
surrounding the mystical atmosphere and meditative quality inherent in the
music not only experienced but, as Cooper stated, expressly felt and seen on
the faces of the choir members in rehearsal. Expect no less in performance.
The
concert venue is the historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church, one of Toronto’s
architectural gems, was built in 1907-08, and is a Byzantine Revival building
with a saucer dome emulating the Hagia Sophia built in Constantinople, today’s
Istanbul. The dome and chancel of St.
Anne’s Church are decorated with mural paintings executed by ten prominent
artists in 1923, among whom were three members of The Group of Seven: J.E.H MacDonald, F.H Varley and Frank
Carmichael. In 1998, the church was
designated as a National Historic Site.
Don’t
miss this unique and stirring choral event!
The Orpheus
Choir’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and other works with the