Live choral music for your drive home. Missed it! Watch here!

This weekend the Winnipeg Singers, along with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and the Arrowhead Chorale from Duluth, Minnesota will gather forces for a powerful rendition of Rachmaninov's Vespers. With over 100 voices joining together, this will be a fantastic way to wrap up the 2015/2016 season of the Winnipeg Singers.

His 'All-Night Vigil', to give it its official title, was composed and premiered in 1915. Russia was in political turmoil at the time. The First World War had begun the previous year, Russia was committed to securing the eastern front on behalf of the Allies, and internally the country was still in a mess as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1905. It’s not surprising that Rachmaninov was looking to write something more introspective than usual.

The composer had a deep and very personal religious faith, which he expresses beautifully through this unaccompanied set of choral vespers. They are separated into two parts: the evening Vespers and the morning Matins, both full of exquisitely rich harmonies. Rachmaninov followed the church’s tradition of basing ten of the fifteen sections on Russian chants, with the remaining five being more free-form. Those five were so similar to the other ten, though, that Rachmaninov himself described them as ‘conscious counterfeits.'

Click here for more information and tickets.

 

Members of the Winnipeg Singers were our guests Friday on Birchwood Jaguar 107LIVE!