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TAVENER:Total Eclipse; Agraphon.(Review)
TAVENER:Total Eclipse; Agraphon
[] Rozario; Robson, Gilchrist; Choir of New College, Oxford, Academy of Ancient Music, Goodwin. Texts. Harmonia Mundi 907271
"If there was one thing I wanted to do, it would be to reinstate the sacred into music." Thus spake John Tavener, on the back cover of his latest Harmonia Mundi release. A lofty aim, certainly, although considering the rich repertory of twentieth-century sacred composition, it might rightly be considered arrogant, too. The English composer seems to have a penchant for provocation, having claimed elsewhere that "Western civilization started to go to pieces in the Middle Ages with the introduction of the aggressive ego." But if Tavener's own ego appears to be a particularly aggressive specimen, that is no reason to repudiate his music -- unless one is congenitally allergic to minimalist music in all its manifestations, there is a mesmeric beauty to be found in Tavener's best work.
One can feel the rapture in parts of Total Eclipse (1999), a sprawling, forty-minute "contemplation" on the conversion of Saint Paul. It is not really fair to judge the music from a recording, as the spatial positioning of instruments and voices is essential to the work's structure. Harmonia Mundi's production team does a superb job with the ample acoustic of London's Temple Church, but this is one of those pieces -- like Berlioz's Requiem -- that are probably best experienced live.
Listeners who expect soothing sounds from this composer undoubtedly will be surprised by the opening section, with its thunderous timpani and John Harle's shrieking soprano saxophone. Tavener intended this music to be "fearsome, terrifying, and awesome" (to ...
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- Newspaper article from: The Evening Standard (London, England) February 6, 2004 700+ words
Byline: NICK KIMBERLEY John Tavener at 60 London Sinfonietta Temple Church...innately theatrical. Last year, John Tavener's seven-hour The Veil of the Temple...this heathen found irresistible. Tavener could not be expected to write another...
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...money owed to duped customers of Julien Tavener and his Haley & Steele gallery...bill to date. In some cases, however, Tavener never accounted for the sales of artwork...according to Sarrouf. In other cases, Tavener allegedly sold artwork without owners...
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- Newspaper article from: The Washington Post Joseph McLellan July 1, 1987 700+ words
Much of John Tavener's "Ikon of Light" is devoted to long...performed with restraint and majesty," Tavener writes in an introduction to the published...composer to bungle a project like this, but Tavener triumphs; he has produced a mystical...
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- Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England) January 23, 2006 700+ words
...David Hart Much has been made of Sir John Tavener's conversion to the Russian Orthodox...Scholars, offers nothing new in terms of Tavener's choral style. Familiar traits are...of tonal richness and breath control in Tavener's gruellingly sustained vocal lines...
