- Audio CD (12 Mar 2001)
- SPARS Code: DDD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Harmonia Mundi
- ASIN: B00005AAM6
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 317,159 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
BBC Music Magazine
The enthusiasm with which contemporary composers have taken up the challenge of writing for early instruments has not always been evident in the result. In the case of John Tavener's Total Eclipse and Agraphon, however, written for the Academy of Ancient Music and coupled on this disc of striking and often beautiful music, the confrontation of new ideas - or perhaps new-and-old ideas - with pre-Classical ways of playing forms a fascinating conjunction.
In Total Eclipse, set in potent relation to John Harle's fierce saxophone (he represents Saul: the 'eclipse' is his blindness; the 'metanoia', as chanted by the choir, his conversion) these seasoned performers evoke new aspects of Tavener's music, taking further the discoveries of Eternity's Sunrise, his earlier collaboration with the ensemble, to recreate one of the composer's most terse and original scores of recent years.
A notable pattern of drooping dominant sevenths connects with a similar passage in the earlier Agraphon of 1995, their barber-shop banality symbolising decay. But traditional word-painting itself never counted much with Tavener, and his preferred interpreter soprano Patricia Rozaria enfolds the words in veils of melisma, while in both works Baroque timpani share a role of surprising violence.
Performance ****
Sound ****
© BBC Music Magazine 2001
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
In Total Eclipse Tavener is writing in the most eclectic fashion that he ever has. The combination of instruments for a start is unusual but most definately Tavener. He makes use of the Academy of Ancient music and combines this with John Harle on the soprano saxophone and the choir of New College Oxford. The opening to the piece is somewhat startling to the unprepared. Shrieks and screams come from the saxophone and wind creating cascading chords whilst the timpani creates a thunderstorm of crescendos. With Tavener's music one always expects moments of pure serenity and of course this work is no exception. The purity of treble Max Jones voice is that moment for me. Tavener brings the music down from the rampant opening to something peacefully sacred. This truly is music with a greater meaning. An excellent addition to Tavener's works.
However, if you are looking for more Tavener of the style of the Protecting Veil, Hymn to the Mother of God, Funeral Ikos, The Lamb, etc. you will be disappointed. Similarly if you are looking for music which is similar to the style of Jan Garbarek (saxohone) and the Hilliard ensemble (an essential CD in my mind) you should perhaps try Preisner's Requiem for a friend. Do not get me wrong i rate this CD very highly but it requires an active listen rather than a passive listen. You would not listen to this as you went to bed like you might with other Tavener works.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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6 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
a different "shade" of John Tavener
17 April 2001
Format:Audio CD
TOTAL ECLIPSE and AGRAPHON are two newly-recorded works John Tavener has produced in associaton with Paul Goodwin and the Academy of Ancient Music for Harmonia Mundi. If you are familiar with Tavener, then this recording will be quite the surprise upon first hearing it.
I first played it on my car's system, which ordinarily is not the best acoustic for any classical music, as road noise often can interfere with quiet passages. I much prefer my living room setup with 4-channel sound and a subwoofer. In any case the first 30 seconds of TOTAL ECLIPSE nearly blew me out of the car. Not so much in a physical sense, but emotionally.
The first 4 1/2 minutes feature John Harle on saxophone with a string section and some 19 timpani (per the liner notes). This is not your usual Tavener opening. Rather, it is something much more aggressive and modern. It will turn your perceptions of what Tavener's "soundscapes" usually sound like by 180 degrees. What is familiar here is his use of the *ison* or eternity note, played by the string section. Little else in the first few minutes is familiar to this long-time Tavener devotee.
It is quite refreshing to find that once again, Tavener is exploding the traditional parameters that are the intersection of classical and sacred music. It is not for those looking for something *holy* like the Goudod MESSE SOLONELLE or Mozart's MASS IN C-minor. No, what it is heard is a new slate upon which Tavener is again re-writing the conventions of music.
On TOTAL ECLIPSE Tavener brings forth the formidable vocal talents of James Gilchrist and Christopher Robson. The use of a countertenor heightens the otherworldy *feel* of the vocal lines, buttressed at some jarring and effective intervals by the choir, who evidently were recorded antiphonally. Their voices are meant to sound heavenly as a *responsory* to the visions of Saul as he experiences *metanoia*, or transformation throught the power that is the light from God. Quite dramatic and I'm sure most effectively experienced live and certainly not sitting in one's living room. I felt much the same way about Tavener's oratorio WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS, which for me is the pinnacle of modern choral drama.
AGRAPHON featuring the always-superb Patricia Rozario is a setting of a Greek poem by Angelos Sikelianos. It is a piece that is very much a counterpoint to the drama and intensity of TOTAL ECLIPSE. Firstly, it is sung in English and not with nearly as much force. It is more of a recital piece than a full-scale liturgical opera. It does display Rozario's gift for conveying the full range of human emotion through the voice, especially melancholy and despair.
I think the listener is best served by NOT listening to both works consecutively. They are of two completely different motivations from the composer's hand. They stand alone rather than together. My thanks to Harmonia Mundi, the AAM, Tavener and all the artists who have brought these 2 *modern* masterpieces into the world of *modern* music.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
timeless
19 May 2002
Format:Audio CD
I'm glad one man has the vision to write music this impressive. Total Eclipse begins with long, muscular, screaming high notes & powerful, rolling percussion. The over-40-minute piece also has ancient contrapuntal & choral harmonies & sections of very unique melodic lines like nothing else but not in any way directionless noise. These sections & the choral are fused in such a manner as to create an optimal synergy between them. Then, the 2nd piece on the cd, Agraphon, just over half as long as Totasl Eclipse, focuses more on the vocal & choral elements. It all aspires to convey a flash of insight that resonates through eternity -- new music composed of essential elements.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Your preconceived notions will now be turned on its ear
1 Jun 2001
Format:Audio CD
"Total Eclipse" is far far far far far away from what folks have come to expect from John Tavener. This piece is a musical interpretation of the Apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damuscus. The opening passage is so intense, I didn't know what to make out of it the first time I heard it. Shrill, shrieking, wailing saxaphone that pierces the air with its intensity. In recent compositions, Tavener's juxtapositions of savagery and serenity are awe inspiring. The 19 timpani are enough to make one cower under their thunderousness. A lot of people will hear this not consider it sacred music, but I think in a lot of ways it is. This certainly won't be performed at a church service (or at least I hope not), but it definately has a sacred, spiritual quality in what it tries to achieve (and ultimately does achieve), a profound sense of change...or "metanoia" (denoting conversion of the heart.) As with most of Tavener's work, newcomers must display a certain amount of patience, as Tavener doesn't depend on traditional western classical convetions to create his music (he is one of the few composers that seems to have found a truly unique voice.) The drama, intensity, honesty, and sincerity of this piece make it quite moving. Parts of it move me to tears. If one adds to all this the idea that this is being performed on baroque instruments (minus the saxaphone) than this is also a great technical achievement as well!
As one previous reviewer said, "Total Eclipse" and "Agraphon" are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum. This is a setting of a Greek poem by Angelos Sikelianos (here the poem is translated into English.) This text will probably shock or surprise many people using imagery such as "a dog's bloated carcass." Tavener's writing for Rozario's (soprano) voice is quite unusual here. The musical interludes between verses add heightened tension when set against the beauty of Rozario's voice and the bizarre but beautiful notion the poem conveys. The writing for Rozario's voice goes back and forth between one of self assured contemplation and one of quirkiness. This is one of those things that has to be heard to be believed. A triumph of modern music!
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