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Call it the breakthrough of John Tavener, or the mainstreaming, depending on your perspective. Beginning around the turn of the millennium, this British exemplar of holy minimalism began to move away from his identification with the Eastern Orthodox faith. At the same time, his musical language broadened, maintaining its repetitive sound but adding a new dramatic spirit and a richer harmonic palette. For a long time Tavener was the province of choirs, and engineers, who specialized in his music, but here he definitively moves into the British cathedral tradition with performances by (and music commissioned by) the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and production by none other than the dean of pleasing British religious music, John Rutter. The central work here, Ex Maria Virgine (2005), is Marian in theme and was dedicated to the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall on the occasion of their nuptials, with an appropriately joyous mood. It gives a good idea of the direction in which Tavener's style is moving, with startling choral effects such as the repeated staccato notes in the second movement, "Nowell! Nowell! Out of your sleep," with the organ playing a role that harks back to the French late Romantics, and with massive planes of harmonic tension in the ninth movement, "Unto us is born a son." That movement has a macaronic text (adapted from a Latin hymn of the fifteenth century), and the big Mahlerian climax is assigned to the verse "O and A, and A and O/Cum cantibus in choro./Let our merry organ go/Benedicamus Domino." There are 10 movements in all, using a variety of texts of which Rutter himself would have been proud. The choir itself brings a big sound under confident control, although text intelligibility is a problem, even with the booklet texts in front of you (and some of those are missing due to copyright restrictions). It's quite a powerful work, with "minimalist" movements set off against more conventional ones, and many listeners will find that Tavener is accomplishing something parallel to what American composer John Adams has made of his minimalist background, although the philosophical orientations of the two could not be more different. The rest of the disc is filled out with pieces, some of them familiar by now, that offer music closer to what one expects from Tavener, with repeated figures and static harmonic fields, although the other contemporary piece, Marienhymne, has a similar harmonic edge. Rutter's production is as excellent as one might expect, and this is a release that will be cherished by Tavener fans, although perhaps not so much by Tavener fanatics.
© TiVo
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Ex Maria Virgine (John Tavener)
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Thomas Ravenscroft, Lyricist - Percy Dearmer, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - George Ratcliffe Woodward, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Traditional, Lyricist - Anonymous, Lyricist - Bible, Lyricist - William Ballet, Lyricist - James McVinnie, Performer - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Birthday Sleep (John Tavener)
John Tavener, Composer - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Vernon Watkins, Lyricist - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
O, Do Not Move (John Tavener)
John Tavener, Composer - Timothy Brown, Conductor - George Seferis, Lyricist - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
A Nativity (John Tavener)
John Tavener, Composer - William Butler Yeats, Lyricist - Timothy Brown, Conductor - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Marienhymne (John Tavener)
John Tavener, Composer - Timothy Brown, Conductor - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir - Frithjof Schuon, Lyricist
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
O Thou Gentle Light (John Tavener)
John Tavener, Composer - Timothy Brown, Conductor - Anonymous, Lyricist - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir - Stefan Berkieta, Performer
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Angels (John Tavener)
Keith Walker, Lyricist - John Tavener, Composer - Timothy Brown, Conductor - The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Choir - Simon Thomas Jacobs, Performer
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
Album review
Call it the breakthrough of John Tavener, or the mainstreaming, depending on your perspective. Beginning around the turn of the millennium, this British exemplar of holy minimalism began to move away from his identification with the Eastern Orthodox faith. At the same time, his musical language broadened, maintaining its repetitive sound but adding a new dramatic spirit and a richer harmonic palette. For a long time Tavener was the province of choirs, and engineers, who specialized in his music, but here he definitively moves into the British cathedral tradition with performances by (and music commissioned by) the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and production by none other than the dean of pleasing British religious music, John Rutter. The central work here, Ex Maria Virgine (2005), is Marian in theme and was dedicated to the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall on the occasion of their nuptials, with an appropriately joyous mood. It gives a good idea of the direction in which Tavener's style is moving, with startling choral effects such as the repeated staccato notes in the second movement, "Nowell! Nowell! Out of your sleep," with the organ playing a role that harks back to the French late Romantics, and with massive planes of harmonic tension in the ninth movement, "Unto us is born a son." That movement has a macaronic text (adapted from a Latin hymn of the fifteenth century), and the big Mahlerian climax is assigned to the verse "O and A, and A and O/Cum cantibus in choro./Let our merry organ go/Benedicamus Domino." There are 10 movements in all, using a variety of texts of which Rutter himself would have been proud. The choir itself brings a big sound under confident control, although text intelligibility is a problem, even with the booklet texts in front of you (and some of those are missing due to copyright restrictions). It's quite a powerful work, with "minimalist" movements set off against more conventional ones, and many listeners will find that Tavener is accomplishing something parallel to what American composer John Adams has made of his minimalist background, although the philosophical orientations of the two could not be more different. The rest of the disc is filled out with pieces, some of them familiar by now, that offer music closer to what one expects from Tavener, with repeated figures and static harmonic fields, although the other contemporary piece, Marienhymne, has a similar harmonic edge. Rutter's production is as excellent as one might expect, and this is a release that will be cherished by Tavener fans, although perhaps not so much by Tavener fanatics.
© TiVo
Details of original recording : 63:46 - DDD - Enregistré du 6 au 8 juillet 2008 en la Cathédrale de Norwich en Angleterre - Notes en anglais
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 16 track(s)
- Total length: 01:03:36
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge
- Composer: John Tavener
- Label: Naxos
- Area: Angleterre
- Genre: Classical
- Period: Contemporary music
2008 Naxos 2008 Naxos
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