Reviewed by John Irvine

1994 saw John Tavener's 50th birthday and it has provided an excellent opportunity for record companies to record and release his newer works, particularly those for choir. Tavener is on a quest to reawaken a 'sacred tradition' by creating a sacred place as it were outside of the temple. Translated into ordinary language, this means that he writes religious music which is far too technically demanding for church performance and too religious or liturgical for the concert hall. For Tavener, composition is primarily an act of prayer and secondly a form of communication. Tavener is certainly a good communicator if CD sales and concert hall attendances are anything to go by. People are tapping into what the sleeve notes describe as revealing "in tranquillity an eternal, angelic, ecstatic breath which liberates and humanises." The disc begins with the angelic: "Angels" is a simple work contrasting the powerful and the ethereal, filling the listener with wonder and awe. The angel Gabriel (represented by the main choir) duets with Mary the Mother of God (represented by a quartet of voices at a distance) in "Annunciation", the smaller forces for Mary illustrating her purity and submissiveness. The Incarnation continues in the great Christmas proclamation "God Is With Us" and "Thunder Entered Her", the latter an extremely powerful piece of writing made up of very simple sound blocks, skilfully woven together by Tavener into a hymn of mystic wonder and praise as the Word becomes Flesh. Glimpses of the world to come are given in "Hymns Of Paradise". The real gem of this disc however is "The Lament Of The Mother Of God". This achieves 10/10 on the 'tingle factor scale', a hauntingly beautiful piece. The score is headed 'with unearthly stillness' and in one of those rare moments in the world of recording, the composer's intentions are actually achieved as the lament ascends stepwise, stanza by stanza, over the span of an octave, growing in power and intensity as it does so. Gripping and moving, you MUST hear this. Music-wise then, you have an hour of great music, some of Tavener's finest recent compositions for voices. The problem is the voices themselves. Despite the superficial simplicity of much of Tavener's music, a convincing performance requires great skill, ability and feeling. On these counts the boys in the choir of Winchester Cathedral Choir are left wanting. They strain to reach the high notes (particularly in "Hymns Of Paradise") and seem to find even the simplest of harmonies difficult to produce. In short, they let the rest of the choir, the composer and the listener down badly. A flawed performance spoiling an otherwise impeccable disc.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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