Customer Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: Rachmaninoff: Vespers / Cleobury, King's College Choir
A wonderful CD I can listen to for many hours! Beautiful voices. Though the music of Rachmaninoff is not always very easy to listen to because it can be quite complicated, these vespers are very accessible. So if you think Rachmaninoff isn't the composer you want to listen to, you probably will think differently after listening to this CD. Visitors who came in my house while I was listening to this CD wanted to know which music I was listening to and wanted to have the CD themselves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blissful
Comment: Written in 1916 at the depths of his depression over what was happening to his native Russia, Rachmaninoff poured his soul into this work.
And what a work it is! And Mr. Cleobury and the boys of Kings College do a superb job of bringing its every mournful nuance to life.
To have died and never to have experience this music would be sad indeed, for through its sadness there is a radiance which transcends and carries one away to blissful realms then gently back again.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Rachmaninov Vespers; King's College Choir, Cambridge
Comment: The music is hauntingly beautiful. The essence of it is captured by the sound one only hears from the clarity of an all male choir. The clarity of the boy's voices and the wonderful blend of the choral scholars make this the ideal recording to own to experience what Rachmaninov's music was trying to encapsulate. Everyone should own this CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unmatched Clarity and Beauty
Comment: As a great fan of this particular piece of music, I can honestly say that the performance given here far outstrips any other that I have experienced, even that of the St. Petersburg chorus, which sounds weak and unrehearsed in comparison. It is hard to imagine a more convincing, moving, and wholly satisfying account of this great masterpiece, which I think is perhaps the most demanding and exacting choral music ever. Those who listen with a pre-concieved notion that an English choir could never do this music justice will be silenced immediately by the blistering opening chords, or the visceral climax of "The Veneration of the Cross". Yet, the "boy-choir" sound that King's is able to achieve allows for unparalelled clarity in the most introspective moments, such as the poignant tenor solo in the Nunc Dimmitis where the blending of accompanying tenors' and altos' imitation of tolling bells is absolutely breathtaking. The delicate shifts in harmony are like glass, threatening to shatter if even one small mistake in intonation or diction is made...this choir makes none. Another highlight is the climax of the Hexapsalmos (movement 7) where the choir works itself into a cosmic frenzy, exploding into a great wash of sound on the word "slava"(glory), and immediately subdues itself for the hushed ending. Anyone who has not experienced this recording is missing a truly moving, spiritual experience. By far the best account of this piece, ever.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 5 STARS for the best
Comment: Rachmaninov is one of my favorite classical composers. His works are wonderul. You chose some of his best works and made them sound good. I'm sure not many people listen to classical music, but if they heard this they would love it. The way all the songs turned out is so beautiful. I am listening to it right now and I cant stop closing my eyes and feeling the gorgeous music. Again I think this is a wonderful CD that everyone sould hear and enjoy. THANK YOU Again thank you!!!!!!!
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