Total Eclipse; Agraphon

The latest in a line of "ikons in sound," Total Eclipse stands as one of the richest, most intensely expressive of Sir John Tavener's ritualistic, spatial/metaphysical tableaux. As he notes in the score, the work is "not dramatic in the Western sense" but channels aspects of an ancient spiritual narrative via an ambitiously symbolic yet characteristically elemental musical inspiration. The sound world of Total Eclipse is as starkly evocative as the Grecian landscape that the composer holds dear. Written for the period instruments of the Academy of Ancient Music, Total Eclipse continues the collaboration documented on the 1999 album Eternity's Sunrise (HMU 907231), whose deeply moving title work for soprano and orchestra was Tavener's response to a 25th-anniversary commission from the Academy. Following the June 20, 2000, premier of Total Eclipse in the City of London's great St. Paul's Cathedral, the Academy, the Choir of New College Oxford, saxophonist John Harle, countertenor Christopher Robson, and tenor James Gilchrist convened with conductor Paul Goodwin and the composer to record the work in nearby Temple Church, chosen for its amenable acoustic and an atmosphere ideally attu