A CANDLELIT vigil on the hottest evening of this recent heatwave with no looming shadows beyond the fading light and no frosty breath in the cold stone church – this was a strange piece of programming but one which utterly paid off.
Rachmaninov’s Vespers brings settings of the Orthodox all-night vigil, blending chant-like simplicity with some of the composer’s most expansive melodic writing. It’s a work worthy of the popularity it has enjoyed since it first appeared over a hundred years ago.
Armonico’s reputation for precision and quality grows with every passing season and was perfectly on show here. Rachmaninov’s talent for sweeping melody and for the dramatic power it brings brought a vast richness of sound from the choir throughout. Science may disagree but few things sound louder or more viscerally stunning than a choir at full blast.
Perfect balance across all voices meant soaring higher registers, tenors cutting through and some bass notes of a depth even the church’s mighty organ might struggle to match.
But perhaps it’s in the quieter passages that this music’s ability to capture the heart is most evident. At times it’s so tentative, so brittle that it almost stops time and, under the direction of Christopher Monks, this performance has a chance to breathe, the swell and roll of each line superbly overlapping with the next.
Of course there is a gamble to be made when listening to such profound and gentle music in the flesh. Passing traffic outside and coughs, shuffles and unforgivable whispering inside make concentration a challenge. But it’s a challenge worth rising to and the sheer joy of experiencing the sights and sound of this music being made before your eyes and ears is truly memorable.
At around an hour – performed without a break – this is music of great intensity. To witness the unwavering concentration of the choir is to appreciate just what a stiff test this piece is.
Thankfully no encores either. Sometimes these work but at other times the spell created by a moving performance can be broken by a sweet treat at the end no matter how well intentioned it may be.
This music, this performance and this occasion will last all the more in the mind for having been a brief but brilliant escape into a world of sumptuous reverence and blissful calm.
Armonico return in the autumn with a work of much greater scale when they bring Bach’s vast Mass in B Minor to the church.
Visit armonico.org.uk for details of future concerts.
