Philadelphia Singers and Bach Festival

Rachmaninoff had two things going for him when he wrote his Vespers in 1915. He was working with the rolling, flowing lines of traditional Russian Orthodox chants, and his powers as a composer had reached their peak.

The Russian chants possess the same instant appeal as Western Gregorian chants but, like their Gregorian cousins, they begin to sound repetitious when you subject them to the close, sustained hearing of a long concert piece. Rachmaninoff varied his basic material by writing 15 movements and splitting the chorus in different ways in each movement.

Each movement interweaves different vocal lines in an endlessly varying series of patterns. Vespers is composed for an unaccompanied chorus, but Rachmaninoff produced the same kind of variety that orchestral composers create, with all the colors that winds and strings place at their disposal.

In the opening call to worship, for example, Rachmaninoff adds complexity to the chant by dividing the chorus into seven sections. The second movement immediately offers something completely different: a lone alto singing the words of the first prayer over men's voices.

The third movement takes a lighter approach, with a series of alleluias combined with quotes from the psalms; and the fourth and fifth movements add a surprise: a tenor voice bursting into a solo from inside the chorus.

Russia's wartime fund-raiser

Vespers sets a series of religious texts but contains strong secular aspects. Rachmaninoff introduced it in 1915 at a concert to raise funds for the Russian war effort, and the texts and the traditional musical forms are deeply embedded in Russian national culture. The tenth movement opens with the words "Having beheld the resurrection of Jesus," but the music could be used in an opera scene that depicted Cossacks riding across the steppes. The joyous finale in the 15th movement could be a harvest song.

Vespers expresses the traditions and feelings of its secular culture in the same way that African-American spirituals express the feelings of the culture that developed under slavery.

Vespers is one of the last great liturgical works. It ranks with Bach's Mass in B Minor and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and the Singers gave it the performance it deserves.

David Hayes's tempos and dynamics always felt like they were right on target. Alto Donna Levin made an effective solo liturgical leader in the second section, and David Price's dark tenor solos produced all the effects they should have in the four and fifth sections.

Bach celebration

The Choral Arts Society turned the weekend into a choral festival by mounting Bach's Easter and Ascension oratorios the day after the Philadelphia Singers performance. Both oratorios include good examples of Bach's driving celebratory music, complete with trumpets and timpani, along with obbligatos that displayed the abilities of local period instrument virtuosos, such as Tempesta di Mare's recorder and flute specialist, Gwyn Roberts.

The solo quartet featured soprano Clara Rottsolk and mezzo Jenifer L. Smith— a pair of singers who are becoming familiar figures to people who have learned to take in the Bach events at Holy Trinity's Wednesday afternoon lunchtime concerts. Stephen Bradshaw contributed a melodious high tenor, and Sumner Thompson's authoritative baritone enlivened the proceedings whenever he received one of his rare moments in the spotlight.

Matthew Glandorf conducted the high-spirited orchestral bits with an extra emphasis on the first beat of each measure. Some people don't like that. A friend of mine says it makes her seasick. But there seem to be historical justifications for the practice, and it creates a pronounced rhythmic effect that heightens the exuberance, if you can keep your footing on the swaying deck.

My personal consultant on German pronunciation advised me that Glandorf's troops did an excellent job with that aspect of their work. That's a minor matter to red-blooded, patriotic monolingual Americans like me, but choral directors should remember that it affects the enjoyment of those strange citizens who've actually learned to speak two languages.