Sergei Rachmaninoff

When Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year we asked ourselves whether we needed to cancel our performance?

After careful thought we have decided it should go on. Although Sergei Rachmaninoff loved Russia deeply, he left in December 1917, never to return. In 1943 he became a US citizen and he wrote his Symphonic Dances in New York, his home for the last 17 years of his life. The All-Night Vigil is written in Church Slavonic, the liturgical language common to the Ukrainian and the Russian Orthodox Churches. The texts of the All-Night Vigil, taken from the Old and New Testaments, are universal in the Christian world and antithetical to military violence, as is the music in its beauty and spirit.

We will begin our concert by performing “A Prayer for Ukraine” by Valentin Silvestrov. We stand with the people of Ukraine and all the voices that condemn the horrors of this war, and hope the music will bring comfort and solace to those who hear it.

PROGRAM

Musica Viva NY
Margaret Kampmeier, piano
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, artistic director, conductor, piano

Valentin Silvestrov, “A Prayer for Ukraine” from Maidan-2014

Sergei Rachmaninoff, All-Night Vigil
– Come, Let Us Worship
– Bless The Lord, O My Soul
– Blessed Is the Man

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances I: Non Allegro

All-Night Vigil
– Gladsome Light
– Now, Lettest Thou
– Rejoice, O Virgin
– The Six Psalms
– Praise The Name of The Lord

Symphonic Dances II: Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)

All-Night Vigil
– Blessed Art Thou, O Lord

Symphonic Dances III: Lento assai – Allegro vivace

All-Night Vigil
– Having Beheld the Resurrection of Christ
– The Tropation “Today Salvation Has Come”
– The Tropation “Thou Didst Rise from the Tomb”
– To Thee, the Victorious Leader