LIFE
LIFE
From birth to the Beatles
John Tavener was born on January 28 1944 into a Presbyterian family in Wembley Park, North London. He was given a religious upbringing and his musical talents were encouraged - he was often taken to concerts by his family. At an early age he began to improvise and compose at the piano. He went to Highgate School in leafy North London, after winning a music scholarship, where he was able to study the piano, organ and composition - composing for the school orchestra. He was also writing music for St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Frognall, Hampstead, where his father was organist: first a Credo performed in 1961 and then in 1962 a short oratorio 'Genesis'..
He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in 1962 with the intention of becoming a concert pianist: having already had lessons with Solomon. Neurasesthenic, he had problems while studying piano and decided to dedicate himself to composition, studying with Berkley and Lumsdaine. The latter introduced him to Boulez, Messaien and Ligeti: London performances of their works had a great influence on him.
At the same time he was conducting the choir and playing the organ at St John's Presbyterian Church, Kensington, indulging his liking for Victorian hymns and religiosity. The 1960s were not, however, an era of conservatism and he was taken up with the innovation and opportunities of the age, playing his Piano Concerto at its first performance when he was only eighteen. By the time he left the Academy he had had performed his one-act opera 'The Cappemakers' , John Noble had sung his 'Three Holy Sonnets of John Donne' and his cantata 'Cain and Abel' was performed by the London Bach Society for broadcast with the composer conducting - it won the Prince Rainier III prize.
It was the appearance of 'The Whale' in 1968 that catapulted the mop-haired prodigy to fame. 1968 was a year of discovery and innovation in the pop as well as the classical world: Tavener had six significant new works premiered, among them 'The Whale' which made his reputation. It was the inaugural concert of the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall that saw it's premiere under David Atherton.. It uses the then highly fashionable collage, pre-recorded tape, amplified percussion and a chorus using loudhailers: an Iconoclasm which Tavener has since turned his back on.
Another success in 1968 was In Alium, commissioned by Sir William Glock for the Proms season: written in three weeks (though he spent three months beforehand thinking about it). The following morning's Guardian review called it 'a musical love-in'. This was the height of John Tavener 'flower-child prodigy'. The prom itself was innovative: three contemporary works were performed in the first half - the audience then voted for the repetition of one of them in the second half - neglecting more mature and frankly better works the audience spontaneously all chose 'In Alium'.
Tavener was the boy wonder of the year (something strange for this 6'6" gothic metaphysical intellectual) the Guardian called him 'the musical discovery of the year, the Times called him 'among the very best creative talents of his generation'.
!969 saw the premiere of his 'Celtic Requiem', another Sinfonietta commission - a work which combines the rituals of a mass for the dead, with children's playground games and catches. The Beatles began to take note: Ringo Starr was given a tape of 'The Whale' and Tavener met John and Yoko for a dinner and music evening in Kensington - the next day Lennon had decided to issue Tavener's music on the newly formed Apple label. The Whale, Celtic Requiem, Coplas and Nomine Jesu were issued on LP.
1969 saw Tavener installed at Trinity College as professor of Composition, and in the same year, Britten invited him to write a full length opera for the Royal Opera House. He was still in his twenties - there were no worries that he was rising too fast, but something had to give.
