In the first of a series of posts introducing some of the music for our summer concert, we begin in the beginning… Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina Despite a dry title,…

By Martyn Evans Fifteen dark jewels embedded in a black velvet robe soaring from the altar in front of us to the firmament above, these fifteen motets of Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil yield…

Easter is by far the biggest church festival in Russia – more so than Christmas, perhaps because the harsh conditions of Russian life, particularly for the peasants, meant that the…

One thing that the Russian and English churches have in common is that both have complicated and distinctive bellringing traditions. Russian ringing often starts with just a single bell, and…

We had a break from Rachmaninov at choir practice this evening, and looked ahead to the biggest work for our summer concert, Aaron Copland’s “In the Beginning”. It’s a stunning…

Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Borodin, Chekhov, Mussorgsky, Dostoevsky and of course, Rachmaninov. Russian music and literature is adored across the world, but Russian art is less well known. Unless you’ve been to…