Sir John TAVENER
Selected choral works
God is with us-Christmas Proclamation, Song for Athene, The Lamb, The
Tiger, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, Funeral Ikos, Two Hymns to the Mother
of God, Love bade me welcome, As One who has slept, The Lord's Prayer, Svyati-"O
Holy One".
Choir of St John's College,
Cambridge-Christopher Robinson
Naxos 8.555256
[69:58]
Crotchet
Sir John Tavener (born I believe in 1944 and not 1945 as indicated on the
cover) must surely be one of our most commercially recorded contemporary
composers, but this disc represents a very useful anthology of his smaller
scale choral works written between 1985 (Love Bade Me Welcome
and the well known Two Hymns to the Mother of God) and 1999 (The
Lord's Prayer).
The composer's conversion to the Greek Orthodox faith has been well documented
and the works featured are understandably heavily imbued with the atmosphere
of the largely sacred texts set albeit interwoven with Shakespeare's Hamlet
in the case of Song for Athene, the two Blake settings The Tiger
and The Lamb and George Herbert in Love bade me welcome.
Many of the works have been recorded elsewhere and will be well known to
Tavener fans, particularly The Lamb and Song for Athene,
immortalised by it's moving performance at the funeral of The Princess of
Wales (I know of at least one person who, moved by the work and new to
Tavener's music, rushed off to their local record shop and returned
clutching a disc of music by Taverner the Renaissance polyphonist!!!). There
are however several delights which were new to me notably the achingly beautiful
As one who has slept, setting a brief text which the composer describes
as dealing with the " awe, silence and expectation " which characterise the
Liturgy of St Basil. Despite the clear Orthodox intonations the work also
manages to encapsulate a curious sense of 'Englishness' in it's gently modulating
harmony. Quite an achievement.
The other work which deserves a special mention is also the most substantial
work on the disc, Svyati " O Holy One ". Written upon learning of
the death of a close friend's father this personal outpouring sets a solo
cello, hauntingly played by Tim Hugh, in dialogue with the choir who intone
a text drawn from the Trisagion and sung in Church Slavonic, the liturgical
language of the Russian Orthodox Church. The hypnotic intensity reaches an
impassioned climax before subsiding to a breathtakingly hushed conclusion.
For me this work alone is worthy of the Naxos budget price tag.
In summary then, a disc which can be recommended to both seasoned
Tavener fans and newcomers alike. I have admittedly heard warmer
recordings of these works and the sound can tend slightly to harshness in
the more impassioned passages but the boys voices of The Choir of St Johns
lend an ethereal quality to the music which leaves one with a lingering
impression.
Reviewer
Christopher Thomas
Performance
Sound
