The first concert of St George's Singers 17-18 season takes place at Manchester's exciting new concert venue, the magnificent Stoller Hall. The concert forms part of Chetham's Russian October 1917-2017 season, a month long series of arts and music to mark the Russian Revolution.
Written in just two weeks early in 1915 when Russia was in political turmoil, the Vespers (All Night Vigil) was enthusiastically received by the public on its premiere, but proved to be Rachmaninov's last sacred piece: within two years, religion was banned and the composer forced into exile. The composer had a deep and very personal religious faith, which he expresses beautifully through this quiet, reflective and deeply moving set of unaccompanied vespers.
Totus tuus was Saint John Paul II's apostolic motto. It is a Latin phrase meaning "totally thine" and expressed his personal Consecration to Mary. The piece was written for unaccompanied mixed choir by the Polish composer Górecki in 1987 to celebrate Pope John Paul's third pilgrimage to his native Poland that summer.
John Tavener converted to Tavener the Russian Orthodox Church in 1977 and Orthodox theology and liturgical traditions became a major influence on his work. Song for Athene was composed in 1993 as a tribute to a family friend and was memorably performed at the end of the funeral service for Princess Diana in September 1997.
Pawel Lukaszewski is the most outstanding of the younger generation of Polish composers specializing in sacred choral music composing in a style influenced by Górecki, Pärt, and Tavener. His hauntingly beautiful Nunc Dimittis was written in 2007.
