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NEW YORK, Oct. 22. The Morgan University Choir, consisting exclusively of black performers, sang the first part of Sergei Rachmaninov's «All Night Vigil» in Russian and received a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall, the correspondent reports.
The choir performed at a concert in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer. The organizer was The Cultural Exchange Foundation.
As the head of the foundation, chief conductor of the New York City Opera Konstantin Orbelyan told reporters, Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary cannot pass unnoticed.
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"I organized it. I called amazing young artists. Everyone is in love with Sergei Vasilyevich’s music. I wanted to show how much American culture is saturated with Rachmaninov’s music. This includes the film “The Seven Year Itch” with Marilyn Monroe, Sinatra sang songs, and the 18th variation of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is heard in many films. People here may not know that this is Rachmaninov’s music, but this is our self-awareness, it is imbued with this music and this divine, unique emotional generosity that only Rachmaninov had,” he said.
According to the musician, the idea was to give artists the opportunity to perform on the very stage where Rachmaninov performed — in Carnegie Hall.
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"Also, I met an amazing choir from the black university Morgan State University. And an all-black choir sings an excerpt from «All Night Vigil» Rachmaninov in Russian,” noted Orbelyan.
He said that concerts in honor of Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary are planned to be held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Chicago and Washington.
Referring to the current crisis in Russian-American relations, the conductor expressed hope that classical music will help overcome it.
“Because music is an international, interethnic and interfaith language. Music has no barriers. Music can at least help change the mood,” Orbelyan believes.
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As an example, he cited concerts with military songs that he did with Dmitry Hvorostovsky at 60 -anniversary of the Victory in 2005.
«And we took this concert all over Europe and throughout America, Mexico and Canada. There were about 40 concerts with songs of the war years. And all the halls were crying. It was unique This emotional component was immediately clear to people,” said the conductor.
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“And I hope that this can alleviate the pain that people are experiencing, and maybe it will lead to a different understanding of what values are in the world. Culture will always live. Our composers: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Myaskovsky — no one exterminated or destroyed them, and this will never happen,” Orbelyan believes.
Answering the question whether there is a threat of “cancellation” of Russian composers , he expressed confidence that nothing like that was happening.
At the concert at Carnegie Hall, artists from around the world performed some of Rachmaninov's most famous works: preludes, etudes-pictures and original transcriptions, as well as more rare things, such as an excerpt from “The All-Night Vigil”.
Arias from the operas “Aleko”, “Francesca da Rimini”, “The Miserly Knight”, romances, solo piano and chamber works were also heard: Piano Trio No. 1 in G minor with Asya Matathias (violin), Christina Reiko Cooper (cello) and Dmitry Yudin (piano), Sonata for cello and piano performed by Cooper and Yudin. Soprano Sarah Coburn performed three Rachmaninov romances.
Among the performers were musicians from Russia.