Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote "Vespers" (All-Night Vigil) in 1915. It is a work of large scope, fully in keeping with the requirements of the genre and style of church music. At the same time "Vespers" bears the mark of the composer's unbounded imagination and is imbued with the poetry of antiquity and the enchantment of Russian folk art.
"Vespers" consists of fifteen chants. Ten of them are based on various versions of the znamenny chant, five (Nos. 1, 3, 6, 10, 11) –, on Rachmaninov's own themes. Throughout the whole work the composer never deviates from the stylistics of old Russian singing tradition, accentuating the parts linked with folklore. Lyricism, epos and drama, elements of philosophical meditation, vivid imagery and action development are closely interwoven in this cycle.
"Vespers" undoubtedly belongs to masterpieces of world ritual music. Like major works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Verdi, this composition by Rachmaninov, though religious in character, has a profound humanistic message.
The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir directed by Valeri Polyansky is an experienced mature ensemble though most of its members are young people. Founded as a students' ensemble at the Moscow Conservatoire in 1971, the Chamber Choir acquired a high professional skill, fame and authority. In 1975 the Choir got the First Prize at the Polyphonic Choir Competition in Arezzo (Italy) and the Choir artistic director and conductor V. Polyansky was voted the best conductor of the competition and highly praised by the public and critics.
Valeri Polyansky was born in 1949. He is the Moscow Conservatoire graduate. He studied under B. Kulikov (choral conducting), O. Dimitriadi and G. Rozhdestvensky (opera and symphony conducting). V. Polyansky was a conductor at the Moscow Operetta Theatre and the USSR Bolshoi.
The performing art of the Choir is well known in this country and abroad. The Chamber Choir made guest tours in Poland, the FRG, Turkey, Finland. Its gramophone recordings are popular with the public of Japan, Canada, Austria, France.
