Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op 37 (1915)
Caitlin Goreing (alto); Chris O’Leary (tenor)
The Choir of King’s College London/Joseph Fort
rec. 2022, All Hallows’, Gospel Oak, Hampstead, London
Russian transliteration of liturgical text and English translation.
Delphian Records DCD 34296 [75]
Last month I reviewed the new Pentatone issue of the Rachmaninov Vespers from the Clarion Choir in New York and was pleasantly surprised by its very high quality and the authenticity of the performance, so much so that I nominated it as a “Recommended” disc and observed that it was the best I had heard since the classic Sveshnikov recording from 1965 on Melodiya.
Sadly, this latest issue from Delphian is not in the same league. First impressions are of a well-tuned and homogeneous choir which has clearly been well coached in the language, but one also immediately notices how quickly their director, Joseph Fort, is asking them to sing this music.
The blurb on the reverse of this CD asks, “Could the definitive recording of the best-loved of all Orthodox choral works come from an Anglican chapel choir?” My answer, unfortunately, on the evidence of this issue, is a resounding “no”. It would be fine – indeed, highly enjoyable – to hear this performance live in concert, but to turn it into a commercial release, putting it into competition with fifty years and more of professional recordings, is an enterprise which smacks of hubris, especially when it aims to be “definitive”. To make such a request of a young university choir when they have neither the resonance nor the depth of sound to do it justice is over-ambitious. A small-scale rendering of this mystical work does not work – and it is all taken much too fast; the “Alliluiyas” are positively rushed and some of the shorter movements seem to be over almost before they have started. The Sveshnikov recording runs to 65 minutes and the Clarion Choir as long as nearly an hour and a quarter; here, the duration is a mere 53 minutes, over twenty minutes shorter than the Clarion, and as such sacrifices much of the serenity, gravitas and grandeur which should characterise this music.
The choir is sizeable at forty members , and there are some lovely moments such as the swell of sound in the Hail, Theotokos (track 6) and the glorious climax of the Resurrection of Christ (track 10) but sadly – perhaps predictably given the youth of its make-up – there is a deficiency of resonant low basses; the concluding low C in the second movement “Bless the Lord” comes off well, but not surprisingly, the famous low B-flat at the close of the Nunc dimittis is plumbed by what sounds like only one or two of the eleven and is more of a groan than a properly resonated note. Moments such as when the basses enter 38 seconds into the Kiev Chant O Gladsome radiance (track 4) go for little because they haven’t the heft. I also note that the tenors are often singing in a mixed falsetto which gives them a very feminine timbre not entirely apt for the desired sonority.
The alto soloist has a warm, very attractive tone without being distinctive and, unsurprisingly, does not sound “Slavic”. The tenor soloist is much less satisfactory, in that he has a small, white voice and needs to cultivate the technique of a properly functioning vibrato because at present he squeezes and holds a note until at the end of the phrase he introduces a rapid tremolo bleat which is both unattractive and ultimately ruinous to a voice.
For all that I am being critical of this endeavour, this is a very well drilled and talented outfit, so many passages do come off well, and such marvellous music will always cast its spell when sung by such a group – but this is not their Fach.
The acoustic of All Hallows’ is very atmospheric and the recording well-balanced.
I appreciate that there is sometimes a need to challenge and innovate in the performance practice of a classic work but it cannot be done in such a fashion as to neglect its intrinsic nature. Small, tight, light and bright has its place but not in Rachmaninov’s majestic liturgical chef d’œuvre.
Ralph Moore
Previous review: John Quinn (March 2023)
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