CD Review: Rachmaninov Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (Estonian Chamber Choir) BIS2571

For Rachmaninov, the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church and the music associated with it had a deeply personal significance. He expressed this with a masterful command of vocal expression in his 1915 setting of the All Night Vigil Service, or Vespers, Op. 37. Less well known, and far less acknowledged for its beauty and importance, is a work from five years earlier, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31. 

As Andrew Huth observes in his excellent accompanying liner notes, “It consists of a sequence of prayers, psalms and hymns, which are sung or chanted by various participants: the celebrants, choir and congregation. The language is not modern Russian but the form of Old Church Slavonic preserved to this day in Orthodox services.” He goes on to outline the unique path that Rachmaninov took in composing his acapella setting by using his own melodies. This was in opposition to the traditional practice of singing in unison or the approaches of predecessors including Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov.

It is likely that Rachmaninov wrote the Liturgy for performance within a church service. Although written for four-part choir, the lower voices dominate the setting. At key moments though light is added through the soaring soprano lines. There is a richness to the performance by the excellent Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under the direction of conductor Kaspars Putniņš. As a whole, the performance has great beauty, resulting from the carefully blended vocal lines. Individual movements stand out to illustrate both the quality of this recording and the primacy of the text. The Lord’s Prayer is captured within an apt sense of reverence, whilst The Prayer for Peace reflects the sense of tender reflection that infuses much of Rachmaninov’s writing. Raul Mikson’s nasal tenor tone is well suited to the role of the Celebrant and Olari Viikholm bass adds a touch of inky drama to the part of the Deacon. The recording, made in the Niguliste Church in Tallinn, captures the resonant acoustic and this adds much atmosphere to the listening experience.

CD Review: Wolfrum - Ein Weihnachtsmysterium (Stefan Vanselow, conductor) Christophorus CHR77458

Philipp Wolfrum is today an all but forgotten figure in the history of music. However, in his lifetime (1854-1919) he was revered as a composer, conductor, choirmaster, organist and Director of Music at the University of Heidelberg. His magnum opus is the oratorio Ein Weihnachtsmysterium, ‘A Christmas Mystery’, written in 1898.

No less a composer than Richard Strauss accurately summarised the oratorio as possessing “Bachian skill unified with Lisztian ecstasy”. In truth, it’s a work of many parts, and this was very much an intentional aspect of Wolfrum’s creation. The libretto was entirely his own creation and draws upon ‘words from the Bible and plays of the people’, as the work’s subtitle makes clear. Cast in two parts of uneven length – the first of roughly an hour’s duration, the second a shade under forty minutes -  the oratorio requires large orchestral and mixed choral forces alongside no less than five vocal soloists. Musically, Wolfrum’s writing possesses individuality, despite the fact that the influences of his musical heroes and contemporaries – Wagner, Liszt, Brahms, Strauss, Mahler, Reger, Humperdinck and Busoni amongst them – can be detected. What could be unexpected for today’s listener is that Wolfrum found room alongside his use of Wagnerian leitmotifs in this Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art for folk music, Christmas carols and other music that the public of his time would have recognised, played and sung at Christmas.

This, no doubt, was a significant factor in the early success of the oratorio, often performed under the composer’s direction. It still is not appreciated often enough that Elgar’s early reputation was largely forged in Germany, and he acknowledged Wolfum’s influence upon his own oratorio, The Kingdom. In 1901, barely three years after its composition, Elgar directed a performance of Ein Weihnachtsmysterium in Worcester.

The curious might want to investigate the live world premiere recording, made at performances in 2019, online first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d94Q5A6exIw

 The driving force behind the re-emergence of Wolfrum’s festive offering is undoubtedly the conductor Stefan Vanselow. He not only navigates this multi-faceted curiosity with a sense of purpose and surety of hand, but also manages to bring a sense of imaginative wonder to proceedings so that the recording is more than just the document of a musical curiosity. Additionally, he provides a comprehensive essay in the accompanying booklet, which also includes the sung text, an English translation is available via a QR code. The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie supplemented by the Philipp-Wolfrum-Ensemble play with dedication, whilst the Hamelner Kantorei and Jugendkantorei Hameln provide choral singing of warmth and undoubted enthusiasm. The contributions of Joo-Anne Bitter (soprano), Anne Schuldt (alto), Paweł Brożek (tenor) Martin Berner and Hans Christian Hinz (baritones) round out the forces with performances that do them credit.

If you are searching for something different to listen to this Christmas, look no further than Wolfrum’s Ein Weihnachtsmysterium. Merry Christmas, one and all!