Resonant, Consoling & Complex
Masterworks’ 62nd season begins with a resonant, consoling and complex masterpiece.
Written during wartime chaos in the winter of 1915, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil embodies a deep sense of spiritual transcendence. Layered, a capella voices blend the sonorous chants of the Russian Orthodox church with startlingly beautiful original motifs, expressing both intense sadness and powerful joy.
Soon after premiering the All-Night Vigil, Rachmaninoff fled Russia, disillusioned and in despair at the waves of upheaval assailing his beloved homeland. The piece fell into obscurity for decades. But Rachmaninoff always felt the All-Night Vigil, “my Vespers” as he referred to it, was a crowning achievement in a virtuosic musical career.
