Es ist nicht leicht, sich der Sogwirkung von John Taveners Musik zu entziehen. Meditativ, kontemplativ, dann wieder exaltiert—das Chorschaffen Taveners ist voll eines Vokabulars, das gerne Mystisches evoziert. Im Dezember 2008 fand die Uraufführung der kompletten Sequenz ‘Ex Maria Virgine’ statt, die—darin ähnlich der ‘Ceremony of Carols’ von Benjamin Britten—eine Anthologie bekannter und weniger bekannter Texte als Grundlage für Tavener-typischer Vertonungen versammelt: mit einer ‘Ex Maria Virgine’-Phrase verbunden erklingen hier mal klangschön, mal dissonanzreiche Chorstücke, die vielleicht das Zeug haben, sich in den Kanon tradierter Weihnachtsmusik einreihen zu können. Voraussetzung ist freilich ein entsprechend fähiger Chor. Timothy Brown hat die Sequenz für seinen Choir of Clare College aus Cambridge bei Tavener in Auftrag gegeben. Noch vor der Uraufführung wurde sie zusammen mit weiteren Chorwerken Taveners im Juli 2008 in der Norwhich Kathedrale aufgenommen.

Taveners Sequenz ‘Ex Maria Virgine’ fordert das Ohr des Hörers wie die Fähigkeiten des Chors gleichermaßen. Ebenso wie die anderen weihnachtlich gestimmten Chorwerke dieser CD (Birthday Sleep, O, do not move, A Nativity, Marienhymne, O thou gentle light und Angels) ist Taveners Sequenz keine ‘Unterm Tannenbaum’-Musik und ist gleichsam eine Art intellektuelle Variante von Brittens ‘Ceremony of Carols’. An Intellekt mangelt es Timothy Brown und dem Choir of Clare College nicht. Auch nicht an der hohen Energie und den versierten, tonsicheren Stimmen. Große Momente erreicht das Ensemble indes vor allem in den leisen Passagen. Hier nämlich überzeugt der Chor mit großer Klangdichte und Binnenspannung und Homogenität. Exaltiertes und seine Klangpracht hingegen werden mitunter einer kehligen Intonation eines etwas unflexiblen Klangs und der Tendenz zu überbordender Lautstärke geopfert. Mehr Lockerheit und Volumen würde dieser Musik gut tun. Der Auftraggeber ist somit nicht unbedingt auch der beste Interpret dieser weihnachtlichen Sequenz. So bleibt abzuwarten, ob sich das Werk einen Platz im an Weihnachtsmusik nicht armen Repertoire sichern kann.

Tavener has made a huge impact with his sacred choral music with, for example, over 40 recordings of The Lamb.He has universalised the religious convictions of his teacher Lennox Berkeley and, along with Arvo Pärt, has long dominated the market in spiritual minimalism. His passionate conviction is as inspiring as Messiaen's and his choral tactics are sometimes similar. Ex Maria Virgine was written in 2005 to celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and dedicated to them. It is subtitled "A Christmas Sequence" and consists of 10 movements setting a variety of texts with a focus on the Virgin Mary. Many of these are meditative and the whole cycle is framed by a kind of plainsong melody. But at the other extreme there is the ecstatic choral hiccupping of "Nowell, Nowell"; dramatic juxtapositions in "Remember O Thou Man"; and the unabashed theatricality of "Ave Rex Angelorum" going well beyond any Anglican tradition. These outbursts, with vigorous organ participation, place the quieter mystical moments in perspective. Familiar carols like "Ding! Dong! Merrily on high" and "Unto to us is born a Son" get a robust makeover and the cradle song "Little Jesus, sweetly sleep" is rescued from banality by Tavener's individual way of using simple triads. The composer's Byzantine allegiances are reflected in the texts of several of the attractive single pieces that follow.

Clare College Choir is outstanding throughout with a remarkable security of attack and precise intonation in chord sequences that are sometimes repetitive but never obvious. The acoustic in Norwich Cathedral is a real asset and so is this vivid recording. Altogether an exhilarating release.

Tavener has taken a number of texts, both the familiar and the less familiar, and woven them into a sequence not unlike the Britten Ceremony, though with no sense that he is imitating the more established work.  Whereas Britten opens with the plainsong Hodie, Tavener sets the words in a modern idiom from the start, and that idiom, as I have already indicated, is a fairly uncompromising one.  The familiar words from the opening of St John’s gospel in Verbum caro factum est are set in unison but, though the music displays what the excellent notes (by David Truslove) describe as ‘poignant chromaticism’, this is a tough chromaticism and its irregular rhythms indicate that we had better not sit back and wallow in the familiar message.  Tavener’s Word made flesh is more a challenge to the world than a consolation.  Yes, it is ‘serene’, to quote the notes again, but it is an unsettling serenity.

Where earlier composers, including Britten, have either adapted traditional melodies or sought to produce a synthesis between medieval/renaissance evocations on the one hand and a modern idiom on the other—a synthesis which I must admit to cherishing in a familiar piece such as Joubert’s Torches—you won’t find the same blend in Tavener.  You will, however, find rhythmic excitement to more than match Torches in Nowell! Nowell! (track 2)

If there is any trace of the familiar late-medieval tune of Sweet was the song (track 4) or of There is no Rose (track 6) or of the traditional tune in Ding! Dong! Merrily on high (tr.7) I can’t hear it.  Only Rocking (‘We will rock you’, tr.8) seems to me to evoke anything close to the comfortingly familiar—and this soon leads into another powerful and impressive setting of Unto us is born a Son (tr.9)...As I write, Ex Maria Virgine has yet to receive its first complete public performance, scheduled for St John’s College on 12th December, 2008.  I’m sure that it will be the first of many and that it is destined to become part of the Christmas scene.  Even the more powerful sections, such as Unto us is born a Son (tr.9) have their quietly beautiful moments, though the majority of this section is pretty angular.  This multi-lingual work (parts of tr.9 are in Greek and Arabic) ends as it began with Verbum caro (tr.10), this time in a more peaceful form—the serenity that was only partly present at the beginning now asserting itself, though the effect is still rather unsettling.

The other works on the CD, ranging in date from 1985, the first version of Angels (tr.16) to Marienhymne, another 2005 composition, add to the value of this recording.  They also remind us of the wide range of Tavener’s interests, from the Greek Orthodox in O Thou Gentle Light (Phós hilaron, the evening hymn, tr.15, usually translated ‘Hail gladdening light’) to the German Marienhymne (tr.14).  Most of them relate to one of the fixed points in Tavener’s music, his response to what the notes call ‘The Eternal Feminine’ in the form of the Virgin Mary. 

The programme ends appropriately (tr.16) with an assertion of the Byzantine doctrine of the Angels—the same angels who spread the mantle of the Virgin over Constantinople in its hour of need in The Protecting Veil; this music is as thrillingly beautiful as that earlier piece.  The evocation of earlier musical forms, which I found to be largely absent from the sections of Ex Maria Virgine, plays its part here and in the preceding O Thou Gentle Light (tr.15); I certainly hear more than a hint of Orthodox chant in this beautiful music.  Angels rounds off the whole programme in the same mood as that wonderful prayer which Cranmer translated as the closing collect of Anglican Evensong – ‘Lighten our darkness ...’

Angels receives a beautiful performance, wholly worthy of its tone, as do the other works and the various sections of Ex Maria—Timothy Brown, his soloists and his choir are ever alert and sympathetic to the moods of the music.  They have clearly absorbed the idiom more readily than I have—after all, their college commissioned the new work.  If they haven’t yet taken me fully into the heart of this major commission, I’m sure they will—if not this year, then perhaps next.

The notes are very helpful and the texts are already online for anyone who wants them if they’ve downloaded the recording (available in 320k sound from classicsonline and passionato, also from eMusic)…As with all the Naxos CDs of English choral music that I have heard, the recording is wholly worthy of the performances.  Strongly recommended—but you may need to persevere.  It’s well removed from the cosy Christmas of renaissance art or of chestnuts roasting by the fire, though there’s a place for those, too.  If you want the latter, go for another Naxos CD, Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride and Other Holiday Favorites (8.559621).  That Anderson CD is available only in North America, but it’s available to download anywhere.

Ex Maria Virgine, was commissioned by Timothy Brown in 2005 and the Clare College Choir, Cambridge, who have recorded the selections for the present release. The 10-part piece focuses on the Blessed Virgin, honoring the "Eternal Feminine" as she is honored in Eastern Orthodoxy. Ex Maria Virgine is a difficult piece with flashes of great beauty. Tavener recasts "There is No Rose," "Ding dong Merrily on High" and "Rocking" in jarring fashion. This music is often dissonant and anxious, but relaxes in the final "Verbum Caro."

Tavener's shorter pieces are beautiful. "Birthday Sleep" based on a text by Vernon Watkins, is grand in an ancient style. Tavener soars here. The composer's setting for Yeat's "A Nativity" begins with a darkness that gives way to brightness as the piece unfolds. "O Thou Gentle Light" from the Orthodox liturgy, is the most consonant work and is stunning. Tavener remains, with Ex Maria Virgine the choral composer of note. It is encouraging to realize that music this fine continues to be composed.