Rachmaninov: Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

Thu 21.3.2024 7 PM
Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki
Tickets: 25/20/15 €, Ticketmaster

Fri 22.3.2024 6.30 PM
Lappeenranta Church
Free entrance, programme booklet 10€

Sun 24.3.2024 5 PM
Stadtpfarre St. Nikolaus, Merano, Italia (Musik Meran)

Mon 25.3.2024 8 PM
Dom, Brixen, Italia (Musik & Kirche)

Sat 11.5.2024 6 PM
Tampere Hall, small hall
Tickets: 29/25/10 € from Tampere Hall ticket office or lippu.fi

Helsinki Chamber Choir
Nils Schweckendiek, conductor

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
 
Alongside his celebrated All-Night Vigil of 1915, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is one of the two major a cappella compositions by Sergei Rachmaninov. Written in the space of just a few weeks in 1910 following the composer’s return from a concert trip to America, the work sets the most common liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church using a fascinating variety of choral textures. Although clearly written with church use in mind, the work’s “spirit of modernism” displeased the church authorities (as had Tchaikovsky’s setting of the same texts some decades before) and it fell into obscurity for many years. Only in recent times has the piece established itself on the concert platform as one of Rachmaninov’s most significant achievements.