Tavener: Song for Athene - download (MP3 & FLAC)

“While personal loss lies at the heart of this new collection from the ever admirable Vasari Singers, it is predominantly a superb celebration of life and love...Always ready to commission and perform new work, this choir grows in stature with each new recording.” The Observer, 7th October 2012

“Pott's music is further evidence of this composer's vivid and unusual aural imagination, as well as his dramatic sense. This is the first recording of this beautiful work...On a disc where the solo singing is uniformly excellent, it is unfair to cite an individual, but Matthew Wood's singing [in the Jackson] is a marvellous blend of of implacable poise and vocal beauty.” International Record Review, October 2012

“Soft, consolatory, warmly glowing: that's the atmosphere created by Gabriel Jackson in the opening movement of his Requiem...The Vasari Singers grip [the Pott] with evident relish and commitment, producing the CD's most potently arresting performance.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ****

“The music feels as spontaneously descriptive as Eric Whitacre's, though without the quick onset of diminishing returns...Performances under Jeremy Backhouse meet the formidable challenges without audible strain, never shrinking away from the music's intense emotional content.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“If John Tavener's reputation were to rest solely on his unaccompanied choral music and nothing else, then his stature as one of the most striking and original composers working today would be just as high. Much of Tavener's creativity is founded on the traditions of his Orthodox faith and of Orthodox chant, and yet curiously, intentionally or unintentionally, he has also, through works such as those presented here, extended the tradition of English choral music. Through their popularity The Lamb, The Tiger and Songfor Athene have become immovably imbedded in our choral tradition, but one need only listen to the splendid Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, for instance, to find a unique symbiosis of Eastern and Western traditions at work.
Many of the works presented on this CD have enjoyed wide circulation on numerous Taveneronly and compilation discs, but the performances here from the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, under the direction of Christopher Robinson, have much to recommend them and the super-budget price makes this issue especially desirable for those seeking a survey of Tavener's choral music for the first time.
Svyati for solo cello and choir, with echoes of The Protecting Veil, opens a window on Tavener's more overtly Eastern/ Orthodox-inspired music. Tim Hugh's serenely beautiful account of the solo cello part is a winner from beginning to end. The recording, made in St John's College Chapel, is resplendently atmospheric.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Christmas Proclamation, God is with Us, is the striking first item in this collection of John Tavener's shorter choral pieces. It was inspired, like so many of Tavener's works, by Greek Orthodox liturgy, rising in a thrilling crescendo and punctuated at the end by fortissimo organ chords. The Song for Athene, well-remembered from the funeral, of Princess Diana, is here presented as an anthem rather than a processional, with the other works, including most of the favourite Tavener items, also superbly sung and atmospherically recorded” Edward Greenfield, The Guardian, December 8, 2000

“John Tavener's choral music is inspired by his Orthodox faith, and on this disc the choir…. eloquently communicate the music's timeless spirituality…[and] the composer's richly coloured blend of Eastern and Western liturgical traditions” The Telegraph

“James Whitbourn's singers, seasoned yet still young, robustly engage with compositions that many groups treat with bloodless reverence...Those who like their Tavener pure and ethereal should not be deterred from tasting The Choir's more muscular approach to the composer's work. The tonal weight and emotional conviction of their performance opens fresh perspectives on familiar works.” Classic FM Magazine, May 2011 ****

“The clue is not to over-dramatise the musical content - after all, Tavener is projecting a musical image, not telling a story - and The Choir thrive on the more expansive and extended images, such as Song for Athene and The Hymn of the Unwaning Light.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011