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John TAVENER (b.1944) Song for Athene – for solo violin and strings (1993)
[6:47] Dhyana – A Song for Nicola for solo violin and strings
(2007) [6:16] Lalishri for solo violin and orchestra (2007) [34:35] Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) The Lark Ascending (1914, revised 1920) [15:56]
Nicola Benedetti
(violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Litton
rec. Henry Wood Hall, London, June 2007 DEUTSCHE
GRAMMOPHON 4766198 [64:02]
The
packaging is geared to admirers of the violinist first and
foremost, whose name is emblazoned in print size two and
half times larger than that of the composers. Yet Benedetti
was the inspiration for two works new to the Tavener canon,
Dhyana and Lalishri, and it was for her that Tavener has
newly arranged his Song for Athene. The feminine muse as
ever proves fruitful for him.
The
big work here is Lalishri and in its size and ambition it
most resembles the Icon of Eros which was recorded
on Reference Recordings RR102. Lalishri takes as its inspiration
the poetry of the fourteenth century Hindu saint Lalla Yogishwari
and those qualities of intensity and simplicity that informed
it are made manifest in Tavener’s writing. It’s cast in five
sections and moving through “dance, ecstatic trance, to a
musical expression of Bliss.” The dances are written in canon,
whilst part of the violin writing is obviously based on Indian
ragas.
Tavener’s
patented brand of stasis and ethereal trance is usually written
off as undramatic and indulgent – as well as a host of other
things – but I’ve never felt that to be the case with his
works for violin. Lalishri utilises the kind of pitch bending
familiar in this kind of work with terpsichorean drama enriched
by the solo violin’s ecstatically high and soaring lines
high on the E string and demanding arpeggiated writing. The
third Lalishri cycle opens with minimalist drive; here the
colours Tavener asks for are at their most intense – with
a hoarse sounding solo, persistent and demanding passagework,
pizzicati and some thwacking drama. In each of the cycles
a “celestial” tune appears, played at a distance by a string
quartet, and its magical reappearance is one of rapt devotion
and heightened expression - though we should note that its
nearest cousins are Bruch and Elgar.
Dhyana
means “contemplation” in Sanskrit and it’s a small, compact
work written for violins, violas, cellos and the solo violin.
Tavener utilises drone and raga-derived sounds which he alternates
with a highly evocative, almost defiantly late nineteenth
century solo violin line. It seems that Benedetti’s romanticist
credentials have tempted the composer to write far more explicitly
in this vein than ever before. The Song for Athene is
best known from its having being performed at the funeral
of Princess Diana. Its arrangement here is highly effective;
the tremolandi passage especially and the surge of expression
at 5:10.
The
disc actually begins with another kind of “ethereal”, if
that’s how you characterise VW’s The Lark Ascending – the
booklet does and proposes ethereal as an over-arching album
concept. There’s a close-up perspective on Benedetti’s violin
which accentuates some ambient studio noise and renders some
of her bowing rather unlovely. Orchestrally, the bass line
is too heavy for my taste and some of Litton’s pauses too
calculated. And whilst the tempo is an acceptable one I didn’t
find the thing especially moving or entirely naturally phrased.
But
the main focus is the Tavener. Atheistic souls will recoil
from Lalishri but adherents will find the new work to be
suitably attractive, not undramatic, and worthily added to
the Tavener canon.
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