Rachmaninoff’s Vespers

A year after the outbreak of the First World War, with Russia still in turmoil after the 1905 Revolution, Sergei Rachmaninoff set about composing one of the most beautiful choral works in the repertoire. He wrote the magnificent Vespers, op. 37, guided by his deep religiosity and the memory of the rituals linked to the Orthodox Church that he had attended since he was a child. Martina Batič, the new Artistic Director of the Gulbenkian Choir, conducts this work of great sensitivity and introspection, as if every note written by Rachmaninoff tried to serenade and pacify a world gripped by conflict.

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