In this small-scale song cycle, Taverner coloured his melodic Soprano lines with Eastern European and Slavic flavour. At some points the composer interplayed the Piano line with the sung melody and at other times used thePianoas drone and allows the Vocal line to soar above. The ‘love’ of the title is, according to the composer, ‘the notion of Eros raised to the divine,’ and the texts are written mostly by monks.John Tavener was that rarecreature, acomposer of serious music and serious religi...

• Epistle Of Love