Spiritual composer finds fresh inspiration at 60
John Tavener was there in person to take the applause at his 60th birthday concert at London's Barbican last week, rising up from among the audience, a spindly two-metre tall bohemian with lank, white-blond hair hanging down to the shoulders of his green velvet jacket. With the careful gait of the hammer-toed he trod centre stage in his soft shoes to receive the adulation and flowers being heaped at his feet.
Tavener is a profoundly spiritual composer famous for his conversion, in 1977, to Orthodox Christianity. He calls the compositions he wrote after his conversion 'icons in sound', acknowledging the profound influence of Byzantine religious music on his work. So, it came as something of a shock to read in a recent interview that he liked going to church 'less and less', and that he thought all religions were 'as senile as one another' - although he admitted that he did still pray.
Tavener has turned his back on Orthodoxy and now looks to Sufism, Hinduism, Native American nature worship and Islam for inspiration - next year sees the premiere of a new choral work at Westminster Cathedral based on the 99 names for God in Islam and sung in Arabic.
For last week's 60th birthday concert at the Barbican the programme consisted mainly of new works composed since 2002, including a world premiere of Pratirupa, a major new piece for piano and strings. The Sanskrit word 'pratirupa' means reflection and is Tavener's longest work to date for piano.
He describes it as 'a series of self-reflecting resonances, harmonies, melodies and rhythms which attempt to reflect the Divine Presence residing in every human being'.
The first half of the work was full of surprises, all soft, moody, melodic film music which abruptly turned frantic and discordant before returning to a simple child-like melody that transformed into an eastern-sounding motif - these themes were repeated in various patterns so that after the first 30 minutes we suspected that we had probably heard it all. This made for a potential loss of attention that was only reined in by Ralf Gothoni's intense involvement as he directed the strings of the English Chamber Orchestra from his piano.
The highlight of the evening was the London premiere of Supernatural Songs. Written only two years ago the work is for mezzo-soprano, strings, Native American drums and Hindu temple bowl with
lyrics by Saint Augustine and W.B. Yeats.
Sarah Connolly, standing in at the last minute for an indisposed Susan Graham, gave a breathtaking performance, her focused intensity wringing the poetry from the music and the music from the poetry.
Tavener's recent a cappella compositions - Schuon Hymnen, Butterfly Dreams and Birthday Sleep - were given excellent performances by the 25 singers of Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton, works they've recently released on a highly recommended CD.
