Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil

Not the least remarkable thing about Paul Hillier’s new recording of Rachmaninov’s celebrated All-Night Vigil is the modest size of the choir; the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir fields thirty singers, roughly half the number usually deployed for this work. This marvellous choir combines the richness and intense spirituality of the best Russian choirs with the flawless tuning and unanimity of attack of, say, the Monteverdi Choir.

The only real drawback of using a relatively small ensemble is that, in order to maintain a rich sound, the Estonians rarely sing really quietly. Hillier, rightly, I think, includes the intonations, some of them sung by a fabulous basso profondo, Vladimir Miller, whose awesomely low notes sound more animal than human, an amazing sound.

The Estonians negotiate the tricky faster movements with ease, try them bouncing happily through Khvalite imya Gospodne, while keeping everything perfectly focused and balanced.

About the performers

Paul Hillier, an English conductor and baritone who founded the Hilliard Ensemble in 1973 and later Theatre of Voices, was the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s principal conductor and artistic director from 2001 to 2008. His work with the choir during that period earned a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, and he was separately awarded Estonia’s Order of the White Star in recognition of his contribution to Estonian musical life. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir itself, founded in 1981, has built a reputation as one of the leading professional chamber choirs in Europe, particularly associated with the music of fellow Estonian Arvo Pärt as well as with large-scale Russian Orthodox choral works like Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil.

Rachmaninov composed the entire Vigil in under two weeks in early 1915, dedicating it to Stepan Smolensky, the scholar whose work directing the Moscow Synodal Choir had first introduced him to the old Znamenny chant tradition the piece draws on throughout. Its premiere, given as a wartime charity concert for the wounded in Moscow’s Great Hall of the Noble Assembly, was successful enough that the Synodal Choir gave four further performances within the month, and Rachmaninov himself thought highly enough of the piece’s fifth movement, the Nunc dimittis, to request it be sung at his own funeral.