Reviewed by John Irvine

It's a common complaint of Tavener's music now that it is getting more and more like pure Orthodox Church music, and less and less like classical music. Or to put it another way, with each new composition there is less and less of John Tavener and more and more of his adopted church, an analysis I think he'd be quite pleased with. "Akathist Of Thanksgiving" was completed in 1988 for the celebration of 1000 years of Christianity in Russia. For his text, Tavener chose a hymn of praise to God with its recurring phrase 'Glory to God' by a Russian priest who wrote it in a Siberian labour camp shortly before his death there in 1940 - Gregory Petrov. This recording was made in January 1994 during the Ikons festival in London to celebrate Tavener's 50th birthday. Jrue to form, the piece was staged as a religious event, with representatives from the Anglican, Greek and Russian churches taking their places alongside musicians and singers. The piece has been edited from nearly 90 minutes to 78 minutes in order to fit it onto a CD. There is no loss of continuity. Composed of 10 Kontakians and Ikos', each section is an almost static, massive piece of music revolving around the recurring "Glory" chants. In fact it is not until the eighth Kontakian that the choir and orchestra are allowed to pull out all the stops and blast out praise to God. The cumulative effect is both hypnotic and greatly moving. A great sense of timelessness is conveyed by this music with sufficient drama, urgency and power to provide more than just bland ambience. In short, we have a pretty good approximation of Orthodox worship, sufficiently distilled for the vast new music market. The verdict? In many ways this is one of Tavener's finest choral pieces - it is certainly the most spiritually uplifting. The long, drawn out nature of the music will delight some and frustrate others. To compare "Akathist" with more recent pieces such as "The Apocalypse" would suggest that here Tavener was reaching almost a point of perfect balance between music which is too classical for the church and music which is too churchy to be classical, a point which recent compositions suggest was too hard for Tavener to maintain. Savour the "Akathist" and this wonderful live performance featuring renowned countertenors James Bowman and Timothy Wilson. It is unlikely to be bettered for some time.

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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