The ritualised stillness of John Tavener's work proves well suited to the players of period instruments, with their fondness for clear textures and light vibrato. The Academy of Ancient Music commissioned Eternity's Sunrise for its 25th anniversary, and for its recorded premiere has added four other works, all new to CD: Song of the Angel, Petra: A Ritual Dream, Sappho: Lyrical Fragments, and Funeral Canticle, a selection of mixed musical quality which informatively reaches back to 1980. The AAM chorus and orchestra carry the composer's characteristic combination of austerity and ecstasy with distinctive timbre, the leaping, soaring, soprano of Patricia Rozario in the title track sounding particularly impressive.
