Gnosis and Requiem Fragments 

Royal Albert Hall, London SW7

4/5

SIR JOHN TAVENER — son of a builder turned flower-power progressive, socialite, renowned mystic and maverick composer — died in November, but was nonetheless prominent in this year’s BBC Proms. Two of his yet-to-be released last works enjoyed their world premiere.

Gnosis (Prom No 7) features a vocal plea — a search for knowledge, as Tavener would have it — written for and performed by soprano Sarah Connolly. Flautist Micheal Cox plays in reply.

The score is engrossing, unpredictable and structured with Tavener’s ethereal “eternal note” to start, leading gently into light and dark elements. 

Each short section moves on between movements of awakening, silence, rapture and crushing apocalyptic forces.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Jiri Belohlavek, shapes this twelve-minute song’s melody and phrases of sumptuous drama. 

At its most curious point towards the end, the shock revelation of a section from the finale of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 17 K. 453 falls into place,  representing a release from the tension between the piece’s turmoil and search for peaceful conclusion.

In contrast, Requiem Fragments (Prom No 25) lays out a lighter lustre of exquisite vocals, falling silences and upwardly moving instrumentation. 

They quickly form, turn inward and curl outward to reveal deep lines of introspection, created by Tavener with the slightest of deep touches in the score.

Peter Phillips conducts lively sequences between the Heath Quartet and the trombonists Barry Clements and Roger Harvey. 

However it is with the Tallis Scholars’ richly textured choral patterning that he creates transfixing ascending and descending phrases, alongside sublime soprano Carolyn Sampson.

Peter Lindley

The next unreleased Sir John Tavener, Flood of Beauty, is at the Barbican September 28 2014.