"Bogorodyitse Dyevo" is the fifth movment of
Rachmaninoff's famous fifteen-movement All-Night Vigil,
or 'Vespers' (Op. 37), and is a tribute to Theotokos
('God Bearer' - the Orthodox name for Mary, mother of
Jesus), making it similar in concept to the 'Ave Maria'
of the Roman Catholic tradition.
Rachmaninoff completed the Vespers in just two weeks in
January and February of 1915. The premiere performance
was on March 10, 1915 in Moscow, at a concert to raise
funds for war relief.
