Rachmaninov's love of the music and rituals of the Orthodox Church were distilled in his masterpiece All-Night Vigil (Vespers); Daniel Jaffé finds the best recording
05/08/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) I was one of the 59 hand-picked voices that formed the 1989 Robert Shaw Festival Singers.The emotional intensity of making this recording with Shaw was so overwhelming that I had to distance myself from this music for nearly a decade. Only within the last five years have I begun to listen to the recording again, stunned at its power, overwhelmed by the artistry Shaw brought to it, and convinced that the spirit of Sergei himself was present in that 12th-century cathedral in Gramat, France, on that hot, late July evening 15 years ago, when we recorded this masterpiece in a mere four hours. Something, some guiding presence (besides the all-too-intimidating Shaw himself) was in the room, and all of us felt it.The recording has flaws. But not a lot of them. We learned the music in five days, rehearsed it in 95 degree temperatures with minimal ventilation (fans bothered Shaw s ears ), and got one day off (France s bicentennial Bastille Day) the entire