Tavener: As one who has slept

“…there's no doubt about the quality of the performances. Tavener finds devoted interpreters in Polyphony who produce some of the most beautiful choral singing you could ever hope to hear. And all is captured in a glowing recording.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2004 *****

“As One Who Has Slept, the earliest work here, represents Tavener's most musically ascetic period, which, by 1996 was drawing to a close. The mesmeric use of dronelike chords behind and beyond the melodic lines reassures and comforts the listener during this portrait of Christ's harrowing of hell. He soon returned to a warmer palette and a wider range of techniques. In Birthday Sleep and The BridalChamber (1999) hymn-like tunes still predominate, but the voices move more independently, the harmonies are richer.
The 2001 setting of Yeats's The Second Coming is full of skilfully realised, dramatically startling gestures, but the mood is quizzical where it should describe fear-threaded apprehension, bombastic where it should be aghast with dismay.
Finally, a group of pieces completed in 2003. In Butterfly Dreams, a set of miniatures, form and content are better matched. Parts of SchuonHymnen, especially the writing for solo soprano (a glittering, heart-lifting performance by Amy Haworth) suggests music from 1950s sci-fi films: as with those films, it's easy to see how the effects are achieved, yet somehow the magic survives. Exhortation and Kohima achieves a Tudoresque splendour, while Shûnya adds elements of Buddhist ritual to the mix.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“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

“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

“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

“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

“New recordings of Song for Athene and The Lamb would hardly seem to be very high priorities for anybody these days but when they are sung by an outstanding, rich-toned choir and interspersed with fascinating works...the Tavener connoisseur will certainly sit up and take note.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2010

“The choir does full justice to Tavener's textures, investing shimmering high passages with a celestial weightlessness and bringing out the richness for lower voices” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2010 ****