Helios: Rachmaninov — The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31 / Corydon Singers · Matthew Best (Audio CD)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Helios (a Hyperion imprint)
• Catalog Number: CDH55318
• Composer: Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
• Work: The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31
• Performers: Corydon Singers; Deacon Peter Scorer
• Conductor: Matthew Best
• Release Year: 2008 (Helios reissue; original Hyperion recording: 1994, CDA66703)
• Recording Date: 19–22 November 1993 & 7 April 1994, St Alban's Church, Holborn, London
• Genre: Classical / Choral / Sacred
• Style: Late Romantic, Russian Orthodox, A cappella Choral
• UPC: 0034571153186
• Sound: DDD
• Condition: Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: Audio CD
• Discs: 1
• Duration: 77:39
• Recording: Digital (DDD), church acoustic
• Recording venue: St Alban's Church, Holborn, London
• Booklet: Notes in English, French, and German
• Recording Engineer: Antony Howell
• Recording Producer: Mark Brown
• Manufactured: France
• Packaging: Standard jewel case, factory sealed
• Series: The Hyperion Helios Series

Overview

Rachmaninov completed the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in 1910, and it is one of the most quietly radical works in his catalogue. Radical because it represents a wholesale rejection of the Westernised choral style that had dominated Russian Orthodox music since the 18th century — Rachmaninov set the full text of the liturgy for unaccompanied chorus, drawing instead on the older, modal harmonies of Russian chant. It is the work of a composer reaching past his own romantic instincts toward something ancient.

Matthew Best and the Corydon Singers recorded it in the generous acoustic of St Alban's Church, Holborn, in late 1993, and the result drew some of the strongest critical notices in the ensemble's history. BBC Music Magazine called it "impeccable, their sense of timing just right — leisurely, tender and reverential." CDReview was equally direct: "as good as we have learned to expect from Matthew Best's Corydon Singers, and Best does the music itself proud."

What makes the recording work is precisely that restraint. The Corydon Singers don't impose romantic warmth where the music asks for stillness. The dynamic shaping is subtle — this is liturgy, not concert music — and the long, overlapping phrases that Rachmaninov draws from the liturgical text have space to breathe and resolve without being pressed. Deacon Peter Scorer's chanted interjections integrate naturally into the texture rather than interrupting it.

Running to just under 78 minutes on a single disc, this is a complete performance of one of the most beautiful and underappreciated works in the Russian choral tradition. Originally issued on Hyperion's main label in 1994, this Helios reissue makes the recording available at a budget price without compromising the presentation.

Interesting Facts

• Rachmaninov wrote the Divine Liturgy in the same period as his Liturgy of the Holy Spirit and All-Night Vigil (Op. 37) — the latter now considered his choral masterpiece — as part of a sustained engagement with Russian Orthodox music.
• The work was premiered in Moscow in 1910 by the Synodal Choir under Nikolai Danilin, one of the foremost Russian choral conductors of the era.
• Rachmaninov's setting was deliberately aligned with the reformist movement in Russian church music led by composer Stepan Smolensky and later Alexander Kastalsky, which sought to return to pre-Westernised Orthodox musical roots.
• The Corydon Singers were founded by Matthew Best in 1973; their Hyperion recordings of large-scale choral works — particularly Russian repertoire — established them as one of Britain's leading professional chamber choirs.
• St Alban's Church, Holborn, where this recording was made, is a High Anglican church with a strong choral tradition, whose acoustic suits this kind of sustained, resonant choral writing particularly well.
• Helios is Hyperion Records' budget reissue label, created to make the label's extensive back catalogue accessible without reducing production or booklet quality.

Track Listing

The complete Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Op. 31 — 77:39

Great Litany / Antiphons I–III / Little Litany / Beatitudes / Little Entrance / Trisagion / Litany of the Word / Cherubic Hymn / Great Entrance & Litany of Fervent Supplication / Creed / Eucharistic Canon / Lord's Prayer / Communion Hymn / Post-Communion / Dismissal

Publishers

Originally recorded and released by Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 1994 (CDA66703). This Helios edition © Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 2008. Manufactured in France.

Heard it in a church acoustic before? A word on how this recording compares would help other choral collectors.