There are few works for a cappella choir in the 20th-century repertoire as influential and important as Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, better known as the Vespers. Settings of the night prayers are nearly as old as the canonical hours themselves, and even the Reformation itself did not obliterate the impetus to compose settings. (The Anglican Evensong, for example, roughly combines the Vespers with Compline). But Rachmaninoff, of course, comes from a wholly unique vantage, combining respect for the Eastern traditions which form the bases of his setting (Znameni chants, for example), and his thorough entrenchment in the Western, post-Romantic idiom he inhabited virtually alone in his time.

The resultant work is at once modern and ancient, sacred and deeply moving. The ninth movement, sampled here, relies more on the ancient tunes than some of the other movements, but it is a good example of Rachmaninoff slowly building the texture while doggedly repeating the basic musical material.