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Stephen Layton’s Holst Singers treat the piece (legimately) as a concert work and bring to bear a light, beautifully blended vocal sound, concentrated and duly devotional , making much of the music’s long-breathed lines and resonant harmonies.
Michael Quinn
Three years before Rachmaninov wrote his Vespers, Gretchaninov, in 1912, wrote this mellifluous setting of the same Russian Orthodox texts – not so tough or austere, but offering equally rapt and dedicated choral writing, close in spirit to the music of modern composers such as Tavener and Pärt. Two years ago, on a disc called Ikon, the Holst Singers gave us a flavour of Gretchaninov's religious...
It is an expertly disciplined ensemble, and technically its musicianship is impeccable.
Claire Wrathall
Numerous delights. The performance by the Holst Singers is stunningly good. This serene, delectable music is irresistible and so is its performance.
Great blocks of beautifully contructed sound are stunning in their apparent simplicity.
Grechaninov's music has, in recent years, begun once more to be performed and recorded as it deserves. There are excellent recent discs available of several of his Liturgies (including the famous Liturgia Domestica), Masses, the oratorio The Seven Days of the Passion and now also his orchestral music. The All-Night Vigil is an outstanding achievement.
Like Rachmaninov's famous setting (more...