For a brief moment on Sunday afternoon, the bright day turned into night as the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh performed Sergei Rachmaninoff's seminal a cappella composition, "All-Night Vigil." Music director Betsy Burleigh also brought Andrew Rindfleisch's "Anthem" to Oakland's St. Paul Cathedral, in the choir's final concert of its centennial season.

Throughout Rachmaninoff's hour-long work -- more commonly known as "Vespers" -- Burleigh's command of the ensemble was evident. Sunday's performance showed that she and the choir are enjoying a mutually fruitful artistic relationship.

A musical journey through 15 liturgical texts, culled from three different orthodox services (including six from the Vespers service), Rachmaninoff's work stretches the a cappella ensemble to its limits.

The best part of the performance of "Vigil" was Burleigh's and the choir's sense of pacing throughout this extensive work.

Rachmaninoff's harmonic palette in "Vigil" blended romantic chromaticism with ancient, modal-based chant. The combination of these harmonic colorations results in many deceptive cadences and stitched-together modulations.

Maintaining a strong harmonic center throughout these harmonic devices was one of the challenges the Mendelssohn Choir mastered in this performance. Especially in the 12th movement, "The Great Doxology," the choir floated along Rachmaninoff's harmonic current and austerely arrived at the movement's subdued ending.

Throughout "Vigil," the Mendelssohn Choir sang with vocal variations to keep the performance interesting. Particularly in the refrain-structured movement "My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord," its perfect vocal shadings brought the text structure to the fore.

In one of composition's most famous moments, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant rest," the Mendelssohn basses descended sublimely into their registral depths for the exceptionally low, ending B flats.

Commissioned by the Mendelssohn choir to celebrate its 100th anniversary, Rindfleisch's "Anthem" struck a reflective chord. Rindfleisch chose Psalm 130 as the text for his work.

The sopranos' and altos' staggered opening statements of "I call to thee" created a hauntingly beautiful beginning to the introspective work. The choir as a whole maintained an exquisite balance among all of its vocal registers throughout Rindfleisch's very quiet composition.

The basses were particularly effective at providing a dynamically subtle foundation upon which the rest of the ensemble could rest.

Although the clarity of much of the choir's diction was swallowed up in the expansive space of the cathedral, it did make Rindfleisch's interesting dovetail connection of the work's beginning with its ending clear.

Concurrent with the psalm's ending "Amen" in the lower voices, Rindfleisch brought the opening "I call" statements back in the upper voices. As this moment faded away into an almost inaudible, pianissimo tenor note, the circular connection between beginning and ending was made artfully clear.