Evocations - Rachmaninov’s Vespers

Resurgam (Ireland)

Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne (North Cathedral), Cork
Friday 28 April, 10.30pm

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Resurgam was established in 2003 by Mark Duley, and is a project-based chamber choir of up to 24 voices comprising some of Ireland’s finest choral singers. A feature of the choir’s work is the presentation of the great sacred liturgical repertoire in some of the fine ancient churches and cathedrals around the country, often in innovative ritual contexts. The choir has performed in many venues throughout Ireland and also in the UK. The choir performed at the closing concert of the Galway Early Music Festival in 2005. It works regularly with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and in September this year will be touring Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore in a ground-breaking period instrument performance. In December, the choir will again join forces with the orchestra for its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, this year to take place in Dublin, Waterford and Dundalk.  

Mark Duley – Conductor
Mark Duley studied music in his native New Zealand. His post-graduate studies brought him to Germany and Holland. He took up the post of organist and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin in 1992. During his eleven years there the cathedral gained an international reputation for its music. He directed the choir on many CD recordings, broadcasts on the RTÉ, BBC and EBU networks, and on tours across Europe and New Zealand.

Mark is now artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra (an ensemble he co-founded in 1996 as Christ Church Baroque), chorus master to the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, and festival director of Pipeworks (formerly the Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival). He has appeared with most of the major Irish ensembles, including RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the National Chamber Choir, Opera Theatre Company, the Wexford Opera Festival and his own choir, Resurgam. He is in demand around the country as organist, conductor, adjudicator and choral clinician.

Rachmaninov’s Vespers
Rachmaninov (1873-1943), the Russian romantic composer and piano virtuoso, developed an exceptional musical style all of his own. His compositions for piano, orchestra and choral work include some of music’s most memorable themes. Many feel his Vespers are among his finest pieces.

Rachmaninov’s setting of the vigil was written in 1915, in the middle of the First World War. It would appear that his inspiration was as much politically motivated as spiritually, as the composition is a powerful affirmation of nationalism. He used ‘znamenny’ chant which is associated with the Russian Orthodox Church. The melody of this chant is extremely simple, and he deliberately preserved the purity of the original chant in his setting of the Vespers. Rachmaninov’s Vespers are emotive pieces in their turn haunting, serene and magnificent. They have a profound effect on listeners and evoke the mysticism of the Russian Orthodox faith. “Even in my dreams I could not have imagined that I would write such a work”, Rachmaninov told the singers at the first performance in March 1915.