Protecting Veil

Above the opening notes of The Protecting Veil, John Tavener wrote Transcendent With Awesome Majesty, communicating the scale of this universal, timeless, structurally perfect and emotionally powerful work.

Continuing its acclaimed series of 20th-century music performed by I Fiamminghi, Telarc presents a stunning recording of two mystical pieces by John Tavener, the composer of the poignant recessional music for the funeral of Princess Diana.

Transcendent With Awesome Majesty. John Tavener wrote these words above the opening cello notes of The Protecting Veil, immediately communicating the scale of this universal, timeless, structurally perfect and emotionally powerful work. In the composers words The cello represents The Mother of God and never stops singing. Indeed, the cello sings without stopping for the entire 46 minutes of the piece, requiring huge mental and physical stamina. Matthew Barley leads Sinfonietta Riga in this exploration of Taveners musical works and inspirations, interspersing performances with readings of WB Yeats and Frithjof Schuon by renowned actors Julie Christie and Olwyn Fouéré.

John Tavener's music has the ability to make time stand still. 'The Protecting Veil' was the first of Tavener's instrumental pieces to become widely known. Tavener, an Orthodox mystic, wrote the solo line as a spiritual improvisation on the Mother of God. The cello stays mainly in the tessitura range, calling songfully into the atmosphere. Sometimes rhythmic and sometimes placid, the music never really touches ground.

While John Tavener is understandably linked with other "mystical" composers such as Pärt and Gorecki, Tavener is perhaps the most revered of them because of his work 'The Protecting Veil.' It has received numerous recordings but this one may be the most sumptuous of all. Structured in several sections that undulate with waves of varying intensity, this work features a primarily high-register cello line that represents, according to Tavener, the Mother of God.

Founded by Anatoly Grindenko in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra monastery, near Moscow, the Moscow Russian Patriarchate Choir was created in 1980. Following tradition, it is composed of 12 to 13 members. The singers were all eminent researchers, passionate about the repertoire of compositions for male voices, from the religious music of the Orthodox Church to the lay songs of the final years of the Soviet regime. At the time, the choir spent several years deciphering ancient manuscripts and giving representations of works that had until then been in the shadows, sometimes for centuries. With the collapse of the USSR, the choir was able to open up to the world and perform in Europe and America, exposing its music to a much larger public.