John TAVENER (b.1944)
We shall see Him as He is (1990)
Patricia Rozario (soprano), John Mark Ainsley, Andrew Murgatroyd (tenor)
BBC National Chorus of Wales, Britten Singers, Chester Festival Chorus
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox
Eis Thánaton - Ode to Death (1986)
Patricia Rozario (soprano), Stephen Richardson (bass)
City of London Sinfonia/Richard Hickox
Theophany (for pre-recorded tape and orchestra, 1992/3)
Jeremy Birchall (male voices) and Margaret Feaviour (female voices)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Richard Hickox
rec. 1992-1994. DDD.
Booklet with texts and translations.
CHANDOS 241-42 [61:08 + 67:06]
Richard Hickox died suddenly in November 2008; he was only sixty years old.
We shall never know how many more discs he might have set down for Chandos
had he lived longer - he was just starting a Holst series at the time of his
death - but he left an extensive discography behind him, including a great
deal of repertoire that, in all probability, no other conductor would have
tackled. Chandos are now delving back into their catalogue for a series of
reissues under the collective title, The Hickox Legacy. This collection
of three works by Sir John Tavener inaugurated the series.
We Shall See Him as He Is was commissioned to mark the 900th
anniversary of Chester Cathedral. This recording was made at the Proms a few
days after the première of the work. The first performance took place
in Chester Cathedral during a concert at which I was present. In brief, the
subtitle, ‘Ikon of the Beloved’, refers to St John, Christ’s
beloved disciple, and the text, assembled by Tavener’s long-time muse,
the late Mother Thekla, records a number of incidents in Christ’s life,
as recollected by John. The work is divided into thirteen movements, eleven
of which are ikons. The principal solo tenor (John Mark Ainsley) takes the
role of St. John; the other two soloists make much briefer appearances. As
well as the three soloists the score calls for a chorus, within which there
is also a semi-chorus, and an orchestra of strings, two trumpets, two sets
of timpani and organ.
As Andrew Burn says in his very useful notes, the work contains little by
way of conventional musical development. Instead “the ideas are static
and ritualistic, varied primarily through subtle changes of instrumental or
choral scoring.” I recall that the piece made a strong impression on
me at its première and I bought the recording as soon as it came out.
However, I haven’t listened to it in a very long time and that, of itself,
may say something. On one level We Shall See Him as He Is is impressive.
Tavener handles his forces with imagination; at one moment we may be hearing
a monumental climax and the next the textures have been pared back to the
bone to produce a moment of rapt calm. However, coming back to it after a
long gap I found myself becoming a bit impatient with the extent to which
it relies on a deliberately limited amount of musical material. I’d
readily admit, however, that this may be a superficial reaction; there’s
no doubt of the depth or sincerity of thought - and belief - behind the music.
The performance itself is stunning. I’m sure that it helped that the
performance was the second that these performers had given within the space
of about five days. Furthermore, the music makes an ideal effect in the spacious
acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall. John Mark Ainsley is superb in his quasi-Evangelist
role. I bet he sings for some 70% of the work’s duration so it’s
a feat of stamina but Ainsley is also tremendously eloquent and authoritative.
Tavener instructs his tenor to sing in a Byzantine style so much of the part
is declamatory in nature and often microtones are deployed. Patricia Rozario,
a renowned exponent of Tavener’s music appears as the Samaritan woman
in Ikon VI and her part explores a truly fearsome vocal compass which she
negotiates masterfully. Andrew Murgatroyd’s role is less prominent;
he sings in Ikon VIII and he does well. The choirs and orchestra are fervent
in their efforts and under the sure-footed and committed direction of Richard
Hickox it’s hard to imagine that the work could have received stronger
advocacy than this. The Chandos engineering team of Ralph Couzens and Richard
Smoker have recorded the work extremely successfully, providing sound that
is at once spacious yet has impact. Though the performance was given at the
Proms, where the audiences are not always the quietest, I wasn’t conscious
of intrusive off-stage noises and after the piece has achieved its ultra-soft
conclusion there is, mercifully, no applause.
I’d not previously heard the other two recordings. Eis Thanaton
was the work through which Tavener got back to composing after the shock of
the death of his mother. It sets, in the original language, the words - in
Greek - of Andreas Kalvos (1792-1869). In the poem a grieving son - the bass
- visits the grave of his mother. The first of the work’s three sections
is a monologue for the son in which he laments his late mother. In the second
section the spirit of the mother - the soprano - appears to him and assures
him of her happiness in the afterlife. The final section is a dialogue between
the two but here Tavener departs from the poem, assigning to the soprano the
identity of the Mother of God and her words are from the Orthodox burial service.
Each singer is accompanied by a separate and very differently comprised instrumental
group. Andrew Burn says that the work was devised as either a semi-concert
or semi-staged work. Once more, it’s a piece that’s essentially
slow moving and where the musical material is not significantly developed.
The opening monologue is dark and very bleak in tone. The mother’s music,
with a much more transparent accompaniment, is more radiant and reassuring.
Despite the mother’s positive message, I don’t feel that the son’s
demeanour lightens very much in the closing section. This is a profoundly
serious work and clearly was a way by which the composer worked through some
of his sense of extreme personal loss. I rather think that this is a work
that needs a visual element, even simply that of seeing the performers in
a concert environment, if it’s to make its full effect.
Theophany was commissioned to mark the centenary of the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra. Richard Hickox conducted them in the première in
1994 in a concert that marked the opening of The Anvil concert hall in Basingstoke.
An important element is a pre-recorded tape on which Jeremy Birchall sings
the Greek words that mean ‘I am’. In a booklet note Birchall describes
the complicated work he undertook to make the tape. Yet again, much of the
score proceeds slowly and the work relies a great deal on sonority and unusual
colours to make its effect. Undoubtedly there are some intriguing and potent
sonorities but I have to admit that I felt the work was over-long. After a
while, other than being interested in the sounds that were being made, I found
the piece not very compelling.
I came away from this set of discs with the feeling that John Tavener’s
music is at its best when he’s operating on a fairly small canvass -
some of his small-scale choral pieces are splendid. However, I think one has
to be very much in tune with his style and idiom if one is fully to appreciate
his larger scores. If you subscribe to his vision then these three scores
- and We Shall See Him as He Is in particular - can fairly be described
as visionary. While there may be doubts over the music there can be no doubt
as to the excellence and commitment of all three performances on this pair
of discs. The recorded sound and booklet are up to the usual very high Chandos
standards.
John Quinn
Three major Tavener scores powerfully advocated by Richard Hickox.
see also download review by Brian
Wilson