March 26, 2004

Boise Master Chorale To Perform "Vespers" April 17-18

The 100-voice Boise Master Chorale, directed by Boise State music professor James Jirak, will present the music of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 17, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18, at St John’s Cathedral in Boise. Tickets are $13 general admission and are available at the door or by calling 344-7901. Students will be admitted free. The program includes Rachmaninoff’s Op. 37, “All-Night Vigil” also referred to as the “Vespers.” Based on old Russian Orthodox chant melodies, this hauntingly beautiful music for unaccompanied voices will be sung in Church Slavonic, a language which predates modern Russian. The Chorale will sing in up to 12 different voice parts at times. As with much of Russian sacred choral music, bass singers are required to sing very, very low sounds in this choral masterwork. The music also features several tenor solos. Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was not only a composer but also a successful conductor and brilliant concert pianist. In 1904 he was selected to conduct the famous Bolshoi Theatre and he often toured as a conductor and pianist performing his own works. Finding it extremely taxing to do all three at once, he wrote very little music following the outbreak of World War I because he was busy giving concerts with Koussevitzky for the war effort. But in the winter of 1915 he took time to compose his greatest liturgical work, the “Vespers,” which was performed by the Moscow Synod Choir, an ensemble of 30 men and 50 boys. Rachmaninoff’s teacher Sergei Taneyev said, “this new composition is undoubtedly of great importance to the literature ... One must hear for oneself how simple chant can be transformed in the hands of a great artist.” At the end of his life, Rachmaninoff was engaged in a performance tour of the United States. -30- Contacts Diane Campbell Cathy McCrea Boise Master Chorale Boise Master Chorale 208 344-7901 208 344-7901 Media Contact Kathleen Craven Boise State communications and marketing 208 426-3275