Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts) Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Kaspars Putniņš

• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts):
• 1 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 1, The Great Litany 00:40
• 2 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 2, Bless the Lord, O My Soul 03:43
• 3 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 3, Glory to the Father - Only-Begotten Son 02:37
• 4 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 4, In Thy Kingdom 04:54
• 5 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 5, Come, Let Us Worship 01:24
• 6 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 6, O Lord, Save the Pious - Holy God 02:34
• 7 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 7, The Augmented Litany 04:23
• 8 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 8, The Cherubic Hymn 04:53
• 9 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 9, The Litany of Supplication 00:47
• 10 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 10, The Creed 06:29
• 11 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 11, The Eucharistic Prayer 06:13
• 12 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 12, We Hymn Thee 02:33
• 13 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 13, Hymn to the Mother of God 02:55
• 14 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 14, The Lord's Prayer 04:42
• 15 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 16, Praise the Lord from the Heavens 02:16
• 16 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 17, Blessed Is He - We Have Seen the True Light 01:20
• 17 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 18, Let Our Mouths Be Filled 03:34
• 18 Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts): No. 19, Blessed Be the Name of the Lord - No. 20, Many Years 01:57
• Total Runtime 57:54

Info for Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts)

The music of the Russian Orthodox Church was an essential part of Sergei Rachmaninov’s musical background. As a boy he was deeply moved by the sound of St Petersburg’s cathedral choirs, and phrases reminiscent of liturgical chant permeate his music. His Vespers has long been admired as a summit of Russian liturgical music. It has unfortunately tended to overshadow the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, his earlier large-scale sacred composition. Named after the fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople and Church Father, the Liturgy consists of a sequence of prayers, psalms and hymns, which are sung or chanted by the different participants in the service.

Rachmaninov did not make use of any existing chants (as he would later do in his Vespers), but chose to reflect their style and spirit with music entirely of his own. The sonorities he creates is rarely achieved by plain four-part writing: instead the voices are frequently divided, solos emerge from the choir, and the range of textures shows great imagination. The Liturgy is here performed in the warm acoustics of the Niguliste Church in Tallinn by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – listed among the ten best choirs in the world by the BBC Music Magazine in 2020 – conducted by Kaspars Putniņš.

Raul Mikson, tenor
Olari Viikholm, bass
Maria Valdmaa, soprano
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Kaspars Putniņš, conductor

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