Birmingham Bach Choir at St Paul's Church, Birmingham

Post

Subscribe

Sat 01 Apr 2023

Birmingham Bach Choir will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff with a special performance on April 1, 2023. The concert at St Paul's Church in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter offers a rare opportunity to hear the seldom performed Liturgy of St John Chrysostom .



Written in 1910 over three weeks, it is regarded as the first of three great choral compositions penned by Rachmaninoff and reflects his love for the Orthodox chant. Consisting of 20 movements, it is richly textured and is markedly different to Western Christian church music.

Despite its beauty, the work is rarely performed, often deemed too challenging for many musical groups. But Birmingham Bach Choir will sing the piece unaccompanied, and in its original language (Liturgical Slavonic), to mark the composer’s birth date.

Discussing the concert, Musical Director Paul Spicer said: “It’s a stunning piece, extremely beautiful, which deserves to be more widely heard. The choir is at the peak of its powers and more than able to take on the challenge of performing it as originally written.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the Liturgy will be sung in the West Midlands in Liturgical Slavonic for a considerable time. In fact, we haven't been able to find record of another concert performance of it at all, making this a once-in-a-lifetime event.”



Tickets are priced £12 - £24 from https://birmingham.bachchoir.com/concerts---tickets.html

Born in Russia on April 1, 1873, Rachmaninoff was an accomplished pianist who made his name as a virtuoso musician and inspired composer. Well-travelled and widely celebrated abroad, the political and civil unrest that defined the revolutionary period led him to flee Russia – first for Germany, and later Switzerland and the United States. He eventually died in California, having taken US citizenship, in 1943. "Music is enough for a lifetime," he once said. "But a lifetime is not enough for music."



One of the most influential and famed Romantic composers, among Rachmaninoff’s best-known works are Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1900) – declared “the nation’s favourite classical work” by Classic FM – and the choral work, All-Night Vigil, or Vespers (1915). The anniversary of his birth is being marked by major orchestras and musical groups worldwide.


#concerts
#choirs
#classical_music
#churches

%wnbirmingham