Search - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninoff Festival Choir, Anthony Antolini :: Rachmaninoff: the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Scholar and director Anthony Antolini brings together nearly one hundred voices, including the resonant bass of Father Andre Popkav, on this fine recording of one of the most dearly beloved works of Russian sacred choral music. Rachmaninoff composed his 'Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in the month of July, 1910 at his summer estate, Ivanovka, which was about 300 miles southeast of Moscow in the fertile, black-soil region of Russia. In a letter to his friend, Nikita Morozov, Rachmaninoff stated: "...I have been thinking about the Liturgy for a long time and for a long time I was striving to write it. I started work on it somehow by chance and then suddenly became fascinated with it. And then I finished it very quickly. Not for a long time...have I written anything with such pleasure."