Rachmaninov: Vespers - All Night Vigil

Along with the choral music of Orlando Gibbons, Rachmaninoff's "Vespers/All Night Vigil" is my favorite choral music in all of classical music.Paul Hillier and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir do an outstanding job with this music. They sound smooth, polished and retain a sense of feeling for the Russian sprit of the material. Rachmaninoff's "Vespers/All Night Vigil" is a powerful and soothing musical offering that reflects a feeling of hope in the midst of sorrow, as well as, a sense of power, glory and peace of God, that is part and parcel of the Christian ideal and the Russian Orthodox variety of Christian worship.

This is an amazing recording of Rachmaninov's choral work. I have The Robert Shaw Chorale recoring as well, and they are as different as chalk and cheese (I like both).The Shaw treatment is ethereal, otherworldly and gorgeous. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Chorale's approach is electrifying and powerful.The EPCC recording captures the movement of the different voices in the ensemble, whereas in the Robert Shaw version, the blending of the parts results in a sweet, rich timbre.EPCC varies the rhythms and attack so one can hear the beauty and passion inherent in the language. The Robert shaw version draws out each phrase and seems to focus on each note in the piece.I have listened to this SACD countless times and it always gives me joy.

I appreciate the excellent quality of the performance, recording, and production of this high-quality CD made with Austrian perfection.

I heard a recording of Vespers on my local classical radio station. Loved it...it was by the Robert Shaw. Then I read Amazon reviews of three different recordings; this recording was the most highly rated. Reviewers were right, thank you amazon, the recording is fabulous. Perhaps it is due to a musical tradition of harmony in Estonia and that area, but it is a better recording, imo.

Spiritual music written, performed and reproduced magnificently.

Having reviewed several recordings of this work in careful meditation, I too find this work to be among the best; it has now found favor as my personal favorite. I have had Robert Shaw's recording for some time, but I find this to be a much better recording in terms of audio quality, being much more recent, but I also find the interpretation to be much more dynamic which really grabs your emotion into a deep meaningful understanding of the fullness of this sacred music and the very presence of God. It is truly a testament to the glory of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the bride of Christ, His Church, His Body. It is very hard to keep a dry eye, impossible in fact. In comparison, others like Nikolai Korniev's St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, like Shaw's, are older recordings. Korniev is closer to this interpretation, and is to the purist, a true Russian choir, but does not match the recording quality here. I also prefer the female vocalist Iris Oja here (alto solo featured on track 2, "Praise the Lord, O my soul"), and find her voice much easier to listen to, being less harsh, tempered and more beautiful than other alto soloists. Concerning Shaw, personally I do not care for a French choir performing Russian works, while Estonian is the language of Estonia, the Russian language is very much a part of the culture and history of Estonia and therefore bodes high in terms of purity for me. The 1965 Alexander Sveshnikov recording, while perhaps, is the purest for those who prefer this, all round, Hillier's is absolutely my favorite, and I will cherish this disc as long as I am able, God willing. God Bless His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (aka, The Eastern Orthodox [Catholic] Church)! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!

This CD by the Estonian Chamber Choir is absolutely what I had hoped for - beautiful, serene, spiritual and uplifting. I had another CD of the same music by a choir from Finland and didn't really like it. It wasn't nearly as melodic as this choir. This group is just superb.

Harmonies are completely beautiful and the music overall just soars. A few of the cuts are less awe-inspiring than others, but overall I found Rachmaninov's "Vespers" gorgeous and the vocal performances on this recording to be outstanding.