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Worth staying up for
The Temple Church is a fine 13th-century building: soundly designed, and vested in the legal grandeur of the Bar. The lawyers of the Inner and Middle Temple raised almost half a million pounds to commission an epic, The Veil of the Temple, from Sir John Tavener, one of our most renowned but musically obscure composers.
A vigil more than a concert, the event was to begin at 10...
All-night journey traverses the soul
John Tavener's seven-hour "Veil of the Temple" unfolds in cycles, with spiritual peaks and valleys.
LONDON -- As if for a red-eye flight, we were advised to arrive at Temple Church an hour early Friday night for the premiere of John Tavener's "The Veil of the Temple." Takeoff was at 10 p.m.; arrival was set for 5:30 the next morning. Within this numinous jumbo...
Long night's journey into elation
For John Tavener, music isn't just about music. It's a way of stilling the mind, so as to focus on the emptiness that the mystics tell us is the essence of the Divine. The trouble with trying to evoke emptiness in music is that it can seem, well, empty - particularly in Tavener's recent pieces, which fill long hours with portentous drones, bell-strokes,...
Tavener's musical pilgrimage had run for seven hours,yet from first to last it was mesmerising
Once in a while even the most heartless hack must cast aside professional scepticism and gush like a groupie. Perhaps it's the heat, or perhaps it's the fact that I have gone 26 hours on a bacon buttie and two bars of chocolate, but I feel one of those simpering, whimpering raves coming on. So if you...
This is John Tavener's magnum opus. At seven hours' duration, lasting from dusk to dawn, The Veil of the Temple is one of the longest continuous choral pieces ever written. Around 150 performers take part in a score requiring duduk, Tibetan horn, simantron and Indian harmonium, as well as soprano soloist, choir and organ, a supply of candles and copious amounts of incense. Embracing diverse...
St John's, Smith Square, saw Stephen Layton and Polyphony offer their London version of the piece, on Good Friday. Layton brought out the intense emotion and drama from the start – the sublime opening chorus was shattering – and he pushed the story on almost breathlessly. The occasional tempo verged on the manic, but the effect was gripping. A fresh face on the British scene, the Swedish tenor...