Bulgarian and Sofia National Choirs, Georgi Robev & Miroslav Posavov

In his last year of life, in 1943, Serge Rachmaninov became an American citizen. Nevertheless he always regarded himself to be wholly Russian composer. He never really overcame the fact that he had to flee from Russia in 1917 after the October Revolution. During the 25 years, which he spent in the United States and in Switzerland (where he stayed during the summer months between 1933 and 1939), he only wrote six compositions. Thus not participating in religious life, he wrote two great liturgical works in 1910 and 1915 for a-capella choir. These were the "Liturgy of the Holy John Chrysostomos" and the Morning and Evening Rejoycing, also known as the Vesper. The Vesper was Rachmaninov's last work to be composed in Russia, but it eventually fell in disgrace with the new Comunist leaders. Even the first disk recording in Moscow in the year 1965 was only produced for foreign markets; the own polulation was not allowed to listen to this kind of religious music.