BMG’s Red Seal label
has produced an austere and rather lugubrious
disc of works by John Tavener. All of
them include a cello (Steven Isserlis)
in their forces, and are apparently
linked by the theme of death.
The disc opens with
Svyati, a work prompted by the
death of a close friend’s father, and
which sets (for cello and choir) the
Russian Orthodox text used most notably
to accompany the exit of the coffin
at funeral services. Director Mykola
Gobdych takes the piece at a good pace,
and it is resonant and vibrant. The
Kiev Chamber Choir are presumably more
attuned to the type of sound that Tavener
is trying to create than a British choir
would be, and produce a dense and reverberant
sound with excellent bell-like ringing
tones. Steven Isserlis is also outstanding
with a throbbing, intense and suitably
plangent sound.
The ensuing Eternal
Memory was composed for Steven Isserlis
in 1991 and conveys "the remembrance
of death", representing the Paradise
Lost. It is here given a luminescent
performance by the Moscow Virtuosi,
directed by Vladimir Spivakov.
Despite the consistently
high standard of the previous works,
it is with some relief that we encounter
the human voice again in the Akhmatova
songs – the cello and string sound
was getting a little too unrelenting.
Yet these songs are also extremely unremitting,
and terribly sombre. While the first
three songs are about Akhmatova’s response
to, and admiration of, various poets,
and the following two about her own
writings, the final one is about death.
The mood is fantastically captured in
another authentic performance by the
dedicatee (Rozario) and first performers
(Rozario and Isserlis).
The Hidden Treasure
returns to the idea of the Paradise
and brings to mind the Passion and Resurrection
of Christ. It is more interesting and
varied and, in places, lively, than
the other works on this disc. It was,
again, written with Isserlis’ playing
in mind for the sizeable cello part,
and is here given a brilliantly sonorous
and radiant performance with Daniel
Phillips and Krista Bennion Feeney on
the violin and Todd Phillips, viola,
all perfectly in time and at one with
each other’s playing.
The concluding work
on the disc, the Chant for solo
cello, dedicated to the memory of another
friend, is a palindrome (not a ‘polindrome’,
as claimed by the sleeve-notes!), which
came to Tavener like a dream. It is
a sinuous, hauntingly beautiful melody,
exquisitely and sensitively played.
My only criticism with
this nicely-produced disc is that the
music can get a little too much if listened
to the whole way through without respite.
Yet the works are undoubtedly beguiling,
moving and stirring, if often astringent
and unyielding, and the performances
are all masterly. A must for Tavener-lovers,
or for those who are looking for an
accessible but candidly blunt glimpse
into his weird and wonderful world.
Em Marshall
Steven Isserlis (cello) Kiev Chamber Choir,
Mykola Gobdych (Svyati), Moscow Virtuosi, Vladimir
Spivakov (Eternal Memory), Patricia Rozario,
soprano (Akhmatova Songs), Daniel Phillips,
Krista Bennion Feeney, violins, Todd Phillips,
viola (The Hidden Treasure) 
