Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Sir John Tavener is undoubtedly one of the most popular composers working in the contemporary classical genre (whatever that might mean) and is also one of the most prolific; perhaps the two are connected? So we should be especially grateful that his latest release is on the super-budget Naxos label and thus open to those who like to take a risk in their musical explorations without the horrible feeling of having wasted a lot of money. Indeed, several of the pieces on this CD have been issued elsewhere although Timothy Brown and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge may well have given us the definitive versions here. The two world premiere recordings are the title track and "Marienhymne", both from 2005. "Ex Maria Virgine" was dedicated to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in celebration of their marriage. In it Tavener takes a wide range of texts starting and finishing with Latin verses from Chapter One of John's Gospel through to anonymous medieval carols such as "Nowell! Nowell! Out Of Your Sleep", into the Tudor period with songs by Ravenscroft and Ballet and then on to traditional carols such as "Ding! Dong! Merrily On High" and "Rocking" before returning to John's Gospel by way of "Unto Us Is Born A Son", a melange of English and Greek texts with interpolations from Islamic sources. My description probably sounds more confusing that Tavener's music which is, as ever, deceptively simple. "Marienhymne" was written in German by Tavener's latest guru, the Universalist Frithjof Schuon. The older and previously released material goes back to "A Nativity" from 1985 with my personal favourite being "O, Do Not Move" (1990). There really is so much on this disc, with its playing time of over one hour, that all I can do is encourage the curious to give it a try. The Choir is superb and the production (by Sir John's old schoolmate John Rutter) is exemplary.