Tavener Requiem

On 28 February 2008 Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was the setting for the World Premiere of John Tavener's Requiem with the RLPO under Vasily Petrenko and cellist Josephine Knight.

From the Programme Note:

Sir John Tavener (whose Song for Athene famously seized the public imagination when it was heard at Princess Diana’s funeral) has long drawn inspiration from Orthodox and other sacred traditions; he has recently produced his own epic all-night vigil, The Veil of the Temple, which embraces many of the great religious traditions. Now, at a time of seemingly global strife, his new Requiem is an attempt to reconcile the world’s warring religions through music and through contemplation of the final journey that we all share. Within the circular nave of the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral, four groups of performers, set out in the shape of a cross, will represent the four great faiths of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, while a solo cello in their midst will symbolise the ‘Primordial Light’ from which we take our starting-point and to which we all return at the end. In Tavener’s words: ‘I envisage the final movement as a huge affirmation of the ONENESS of God, as all four groups pulsate round a vast building singing I AM in Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic and Greek.’

'The crowd that filled every seat of this great concrete wigwam stood and cheered at the end of this performance... superbly delivered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under Vasily
Petrenko’s direction. Timeless yet urgent, disarmingly simple in places, thunderously apocalyptic elsewhere, it is vast in concept... I found it overwhelmingly touching.'

Richard Morrison, The Times

John Tavener © Adrian Burrows

Cellist Josephine Knight © Mark McNulty

The RLPO in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral © Mark McNulty

Vasily Petrenko conducting the RLPO © Mark McNulty

Members of the RLPO take a bow © Mark McNulty