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Sublime echoes through a soaring space
It was a programme of vaulting ambition from the Holst Singers: five of Anton Bruckner's fervent sacred choral pieces, followed by a no less intense setting of Biblical texts from his contemporary Johannes Brahms. And, to end with, a contemporary setting of the tremendous Latin Requiem, which arouses a thrill of awe in even the most stubborn unbeliever.
Such...
Tavener’s timeless treasures touch the ethereal
Like most churches, only more so, the Temple Church is innately theatrical. Last year, John Tavener’s seven-hour The Veil of the Temple exploited this quality to the full, transforming the act of listening into a communal ritual that even this heathen found irresistible.
Tavener could not be expected to write another all-night vigil, but this...
And finally to my favourite batch of this week's choral releases. Stephen Layton, and his choral group Polyphony, have excelled themselves this time. I won't say who the composer is just yet but, if I tell you that he's been knighted and has shoulder-length hair (no, Andrew Lloyd-Webber doesn't have long hair any more!) you'll very likely recognise the distinctively meditative style of choral...
Until 1997, John Tavener was effectively a cult composer. He shot to international prominence when his Song For Athene (a piece written four years earlier) made a stunning impact at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Athene, still highly impressive in its grave, ultimately resplendent impact, leads off this new CD, effectively a 'Best Of' collection. Other well-known works by Tavener that...
Stephen Layton's superb choir, Polyphony, does wonders in bringing variety to a sequence of John Tavener's recent works for small chorus that might easily have seemed too slow and meditative.
Layton magnetically sustains Tavener's repetitious writing, even in the longest and least varied piece, Shunya, with that Sanskrit word for "void" endlessly repeated over Tibetan gong-beats.
Most impressive...