Tell Me What To Expect From A John Tavener Concert

There was both of the above reactions, funnily enough.

They started with a selection of purely a capella pieces which were the most extreme pretty I've ever heard. Rising voices moving in and out of harmony and unison, temptingly slowly, the occasional deliberate dissonance producing little tiny shivers that made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The way the notes just kind of... hung there, in the air, shimmering and perfect. The effect of the 20-second reverb of St.Paul's dome was slightly ruined by sitting in the cheap seats, where the sound was slightly muffled by the scaffolding and construction crap, but still, oh the pretty. It reminded me, strangely, of Slowdive, the sort of minimal lushness, sparse arrangement but maximum ethereality.

Ultimos Ritos was the one that got you in the gut. A brief intermission for coughing and rattling of papers and the exit of the Telegraph readers who thought they were going to hear Bach.

AND THEN THE NOISE!!! Jesus bloody Christ, what is that? Possibly the loudest sound imaginable made by humans, Motorhead and Coil and Norwegian Death Metal and all those bands that think they are hard and scary, my god, they're like amateurs, like a dog's bark compared to thunder. A drone of the lowest notes on the organ, utterly bowel-shakingly loud and terrifying and awe-inspiring, smashing gongs and blasts of trumpets and any second the great doors of the Cathedral will fly open (the wind isn't helping) and the four horsemen will gallop down the aisles for reserection and revelation but then the pretty rises up out of it, above the infernal chanting and typmani swells, assaulted by trumpets, and after a big fight with some chiming churchbells and some free jazz atonal squawking, the pretty wins. The end!

HSA was not impressed. "I can do scarier than that!" he insists. "Well, go on, then" I say. Humph.

His vocal stuff is incredible, isn't it? There's no-one quite like him for bringing otherworldly beauty out of SATB. (perhaps Britten, but his vocal stuff is much more... earthly.)

You should hear his 'Apocalypse'! It has seven counter-tenors, as well as a huge orchestra, multiple choruses... come to think of it, I've only heard of it being performed the once. But that was a Prom, so the BBC ought to have a recording available. I keep forgetting to look out for one.

You're making me realise that I was an idiot not to go see it. (was planning on going to check out the Spitalfields festival and pretty tuned percussion stuff, but didn't feel up to it in the end.)

Tavener & Bjork together? Oh good lord, could be the most inacessible, pretentious (heh) thing on earth, but more likely it will be ethereal beauty touched with divine madness. I hope. I truly hope. I don't know how well that goes with the idea of the Olympics (unless he goes more for the big, scary side of things for, you know, Herculean Olympic efforts) but it sounds quite promising regardless.

There's already a piece out there called 'Prayer of the Heart' that Tavener composed especially for Bjork and the Brodsky Quartet. It's on this CD, which is a pretty good overview of Tavener's work and dead cheap to boot too. I have to say that I do find the spiritual bent of his stuff slightly repellant (and he rather off-puttingly elaborates on this side of things in an interview on one of the discs), but would totally concur witchoo on the general level of amazingness of some of the sonics.

x-post, oh, I didn't actually notice the connection. I won't hold it against the song, though. ;-)

what do y'all think of this dude?

His passing has been announced:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24919332

see other thread Ned