Customer Reviews

Darkness into Light

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I ordered DARKNESS INTO LIGHT shortly after its release earlier this year, and I have listened to and enjoyed it immensely many time over since. Having recently ordered Anonymous 4's WOLCUM YULE, I was inspired to finally write a review of this masterwork collection of choral music.

DARKNESS INTO LIGHT's "subtitle" if you will is MEDIEVAL & MODERN--A MYSTICAL JOURNEY. I could think of no better way to describe the mood these works set: you do feel a sense of mystery and anticipation as you "journey" from one hymn to the next. I use the word hymn in the general sense, as the works have more than just a liturgical or religious sound that comes forth upon listening again and again. I literally get chills and am enthralled in particular by the Tavener selections presented here (Come and do Your will in me is I believe the most beautiful choral work of Tavener's and the most beautiful permformance I have heard from Anonymous 4 ever!)

Anonymous 4 in collaboration with the Chilingirian Quartet lavish great care and passion on these four pieces as they do with the entire album. The Tavener works are certainly the highlight if you are a devoted collector of his music as I am.

Not only is the singing and musicianship of both quartets astounding, the packaging for the CD is itself quite attractive and informative. Harmonia Mundi has placed the CD within a book that opens to display the four-color liner notes booklet. No need to fumble with removing the booklet from a traditional jewel case--a nice touch for those of us who enjoy reading the essays and production notes associated with a classical recording. The booklet is quite handsome, and includes two color plates, one probably attributable to Hieronymus Bosch, and one from the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 15th c. France. Also included are librettos in English, French and German.

The 12 tracks are as as follows:

1) Vespers hymn: O lux beata trinitas
2) Jube domine/Lection: In principio
3) TAVENER: Come and do Your will in me (voices & strings)
4) Compline hymn: Christe qui lux es
5) Lectio ysaye prophete/Lection: Surge illuminare
6) Tavener: As one who has slept (voices & strings)
7) Nocturn hymn: Medie noctis tempus est
8) Leccio libri apokalipsis/Lection: Vidi civitatem
9) TAVENER: The Lord's Prayer
10) Alleluia: Quinque prudentes virgines
11) TAVENER: The Bridegroom (voices & strings)
*world premiere recording
12) Hymn for the New Light: Inventor rutili

This album must be heard to be appreciated. Whether you are familiar with Tavener and the quality of Anonymous 4 & the Chilingirian Quartet's recordings, or are new to all this, do yourself a tremendous favor and get a copy now! The production quality is nothing less than superb, as you would expect from Harmonia Mundi and the ladies of Anonymous 4.

This is my personal selection for CLASSICAL MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

I'm not sure how I just happened upon John Tavener for the first time in my life. Where has he been hiding?

This album struck me much the same way Palestrina's Pope Marcellus mass struck me the first time I heard it. It's the kind of music that makes you lean back with your mouth open; wordless at the music that would be too divinely beautiful to touch if you could see it. It makes me whisper soft praises at the sheer love that God has inspired in certain musicians.

I like the medieval songs interspersed with Tavener's pieces. A perfect combination.

My son played this CD for me this evening and I promptly ordered it online and then continued to listen to the entire CD 5X's! This is the most hauntingly beautiful CD I've heard in years. A long-time fan of Anonymous 4, I am absolutely delighted in what I perceive to be their best recording to date. I enjoyed listening to the 12th-14th c. hymns and absolutely love the new works by Tavener. Since I particularly enjoy listening to Anonymous 4 CD's while at work, I am eagerly awaiting this latest CD to listen to while I work this winter! This CD is inspiring as well as beautiful.

I bought this CD a week ago and have listened to it every night at least once. I am a fan of church choral music. This album has some of the most interesting, moving and uplifting music I have listened to. I put Tavener up there with Talis, Gorecki, and the giants of the past.

I have never heard anything like this. I listen to this each night, before I sleep. Never do I tire of it. Its so ancient and alive and authentic to me. Words cannot describe this music.

I haven't actually listened to this entire album yet, but I will buy it just for "The Bridegroom," and I suggest you do the same if you enjoy chant-style vocal music at all. Tavener uses minor seconds all over the place to keep us on the edge of our seat, and his ancient style of chant combined with nouveux harmonies are absolutely exhilirating! Definitely listen to this one!

I'm not a trained music critic, I'm one of those "but I know what I like" people. Well, that's usually OK when describing popular music, but I feel like a trespasser when in the calssical realm.

Nonetheless, I'll try.

I first listed to Darkness into Light during a particularly sad time in my life--separations, partings & even death. A lot of sorrow. I was listening to the music, feeling it was really strange & very quietly wonderful--yet glad that it left room to think, or just be whatever was happening. Near the end of the program I realized that tears were slowly streaming down my face...

So, OK, I'm a wimp. I lock up emotion like a vault, and sometimes only music like this can open the door.

I struggled to find an adequate descrption for this musical "event." "Sublime?" It was much more than that. I started to open the booklet that comes with the CD. The composer John Tavener stated it perfectly when he wrote of the premier work The Bridegroom (2000): "...the music should be almost unbearable in its ecstatic light, its endless melodic arc, its intense compunction. The quartet of strings represents Christ the Bridegroom, and the female voices the people in the world, full of that longing which is a kind of Divine eros."

This music is like dew on a cobweb, fragile & disappearing into dawn.

NOTE: Make sure you listen to samples before you buy. Even for people who like Western sacred music, including Gregorian Chant (which DARKNESS INTO LIGHT definitely is not), may not relate to this intense (modern) religious form of classical music. It's about as subjective as you can get & people have different tastes.

It's the Anonymous 4's signature soft, ethereal voices enlarging the scope of their musical oratory/reach/repertoire by performing some darn strange, unusual and some exotically beautiful harmonies.

There's some weird, slow moving, exotic and a bit dissonant vocal harmonies performed here. definitely a bit of a stretch for these predominantly early music performing vocalists.

Ken Cybulska

It's the Anonymous 4's signature soft, ethereal voices enlarging the scope of their musical oratory/reach/repertoire by performing some darn strange, unusual and some exotically beautiful harmonies.

There's some weird, slow moving, exotic and a bit dissonant vocal harmonies performed here. definitely a bit of a stretch for these predominantly early music performing vocalists.

Ken Cybulska