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Vespers, Op. 37
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Vespers, Op. 37

Voronezh Chamber Choir

Label: Globe
Format: CD
Barcode: 8711525507708
barcode
Catalog number: GLO 5077
Releasedate: 19-08-02

- A brand-new, absolutely marvellous and perfectly idiomatic performance or Rachmaninov's justly famous Vespers, Op. 37, one of the greatest choral works ever written and Rachmaninov's own favourite composition.

- Produced and recorded by no less than Pyotr Kondrashin, the recording was made in September 1991 in the Assumption Church at Voronezh with the most up-to-date digital recording equipment, and also in this respect it outshines all the older recordings, which were for the most part old analogue Russian recordings.

- The Voronezh Chamber Choir and its regular conductor Oleg Shepel may not be as well-known in the West as some of the other Russian choral societies, but in Russia itself they are considered the absolute top. They toured the U.K. in 1990 and 1991, met with great success, and at that time also took part in Hyperion recordings of works by Stravinsky.

- In the booklet (and this is unique!) the complete texts in Russian phonetics with translations into English and German.

- A potential best-seller, no doubt!

 

The Chamber Choir of the Voronezh Institute of the Arts is one of the most original, highly professional choirs in Russia. It was formed in 1976 by Professor Oleg Shepel from a group of student singers and was soon enlarged by the teachers and graduates of the choir conducting department of the Institute. The singers are all highly committed musicians who have acquired wide experience in choral singing and have established a high standard of performance over an extensive variety of music.

The choir performs not only in the city or Voronezh, but has toured throughout the country and abroad, including two tours or the UK. During the sixteen years of its activity, the Voronezh Chamber Choir has gained a high reputation for its versatile and often unfamiliar repertoire ranging throughout the centuries. This area of the choir's interests is being extended continuously and, as a result, its repertoire has broadened to include much large-scale music by Bach, Haydn and Mozart, a wide range of Russian sacred music by Berezovsky, Bortoyansky, Arkhaogelsky, Chesnokov, Russian classics, and music by 20th-century composers such as Bernstein, Britten, Gershwin, Sviridov, and Shcedrin.