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Track(s) taken from SIGCD085

Song for Athene

First line:
Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest
composer
11 April 1993; SATB divisi; commissioned by the BBC and composed as a tribute to Athene Hariades
author of text
Hamlet
author of text
Orthodox Funeral Service, compiled by Mother Thekla

Andrew Rupp (bass), Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: May 2004
St Michael's Church, Highgate, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by Limo Hearn
Release date: October 2006
Total duration: 6 minutes 11 seconds

Cover artwork: Photo by Olivier Haubensak.
 

Other recordings available for download

Westminster Abbey Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Armonico Consort, Christopher Monks (conductor)
Wells Cathedral Choir, Matthew Owens (conductor)

Reviews

'I really think we're in a choral golden age at the moment. I was inspired by Tenebrae when I heard them in a concert at St. Jude's in Hampstead and just had to get their new 'Allegri Miserere' album. It's beautifully sung, a wonderful recording that has introduced me to some pieces that I didn't know' (BBC Music Magazine)

'The strength of Tenebrae, their brand, if you like, is the breadth of range from almost kitschy murmuring to the full-throated beltissimo. The former brings welcome intimacy to the Britten Hymn to St Cecilia, while the latter powerfully propels Holst's Psalm 148 to its conclusion, albeit in youthful, fresh-sounding style. The album ends with that locus classicus of English choral singing, Faire is the Heaven, in which one would be forgiven for thinking Spenser's final words,'such endlesse perfectnesse' refer to the choir themselves rather than the state of Heaven. Some successful spatial effects in the engineering, and overall nicely captured' (BBC Music Magazine)
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

'This album is a must for all connoisseurs of the finest unaccompanied choral singing. From the very first bars of John Tavener's Song for Athene, the opening work in a pleasingly eclectic programme, Tenebrae reveals itself as one of those exceptional choirs whose individual singers have been moulded into a single superbly sensitive and responsive musical instrument. The mood of each piece is captured to perfection, from Tavener's almost hypnotic transcendence to the passionate grief of Antonio Lotti's eight-part Crucifixus, whose agonised chromatic harmonies pack a terrific punch; or from the intensely moving and dignified simplicity of Alexander Sheremetev's Now ye Heavenly Powers (from the Russian Orthodox liturgy) to the exuberantly pealing halleluiahs of Holst's joyously inventive setting of Psalm 148. The soprano soloists in Allegri's Miserere have a combined purity and richness of sound, giving the celebrated ornaments a jewel-like brilliance. Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia enables the choir to display its virtuoso control of rapid dynamic and textural changes. This is an outstanding performance, which reflects every expressive nuance in both poem and music' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Despite the title, there's a distinctly eastern-European tinge to this selection of mostly unaccompanied choral pieces. John Tavener's affinity with eastern Orthadox chant is evident in his Song for Athene; Rachmaninov's Hymn to the Cherubim is followed by Count Alexander Sheremetiev's Now ye heavenly powers for men's voices, sung in Russian. The eastern Roman Catholic tradition is represented by Kodály's arrangement of a folksong and a sentimental Ave Maria from Pawel Lukaszewski. If the women's voices sound too grown-up for John Ireland's Ex ore innocentium, the fleetness of the second poem in Britten's Hymn to St Cecillia is a delight, and WH Harris's Faire is the heaven sublime' (Classic FM Magazine)
Song for Athene, sometimes known by its first line of text, ‘Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest’, was completed by Tavener on 11 April 1993. Commissioned by the BBC, the work was composed as a tribute to a family friend, Athene Hariades, who was killed in a cycling accident. Hariades, who taught English and drama at the Hellenic College of London, impressed Tavener with her love of acting, music and poetry after he had heard her read Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey. After her tragic death, the composer was moved to write something which combined elements of the Orthodox funeral service with lines from Hamlet. The resulting piece was first published in 1997. The form of the work consists of six monophonic intonations (‘Alleluia’), which shift modally from major to minor, using Orthodox texts which function as introductions to words specially contributed by Mother Thekla, an Orthodox nun who lived at the Orthodox Monastery of the Assumption near Whitby. Tavener always considered her his ‘spiritual mother’. The final section of Thekla’s text juxtaposes the solemnity of ‘Weeping at the grave creates the song’, from the Russian kontakion, with the joyous promise of the Resurrection (‘Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you’), before all recedes to the final, seventh intonation. Throughout the entire ‘song’, in true Byzantine fashion, the monophony and choral responses are sustained by a continuous drone (or ‘ison’), anchoring the tonality to F major. Song for Athene has now probably become Tavener’s best-known choral work after it was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 6 September 1997 in Westminster Abbey under Martin Neary, as her cortège left the Abbey.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2023

Other albums featuring this work

Naked Byrd, Vol. 1
SIGCD180Download only
Tavener: Missa Wellensis & other sacred music
Studio Master: SIGCD442Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
This is the day
COLCD136Download only
Vaughan Williams, MacMillan & Tavener: Choral works
Studio Master: CDA68420Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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