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Tavener Requiem Mahãshakti, Eternal Memory

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The Metropolitan Cathedral on Hope Street in Liverpool is a potent symbol of religious striving for unity rather than division. John Tavener's music translates that vision from stone into sound, and in his new Requiem, he explores the underlying belief that in death, our false self as extinguished as we become one with God.

Tavener has drawn on the liturgy of the Requiem Mass as well as the Qur'an and Sufi and Hindu texts. The atmospheric world premiere at the cathedral was a centrepiece of Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.

"...John Tavener's Requiem makes a benignly atmospheric impression as solo cello, voices and orchestra muse, dispute and finally reach spiritual unity. Elin Manahan Thomas's pure soprano, meanwhile, is splendidly displayed... a fine advert for Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic"
The Times (4*)

"The work pivots around a lone cello around which swirl the waves of choral harmony, the rolling percussion, the glinting brass and the clear, pure tone of soprano Elin Manahan Thomas."
The Independent (4*)

"...the Requiem, superbly delivered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under Vasily Petrenko's direction, deserves a standing ovation in its own right."
-read the review of the 2008 performance in The Times

"...John Tavener’s Requiem makes a benignly atmospheric impression as solo cello, voices and orchestra muse, dispute and finally reach spiritual unity. Elin Manahan Thomas’s pure soprano, meanwhile, is splendidly displayed... a fine advert for Petrenko and the Liverpool Philharmonic"
The Times - read the full review