MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tavener: Akathist of Thanksgiving

"An akathistos is a long hymn used in the Orthodox rite, prescribed liturgically in the modern Russian use to be sung at Matins on the Saturday in the fifth week of Great Lent...the score is a catalogue of riches. The dark-hued, quasi Bulgarian male-voice sections, the sparkling countertenor duets, the variety of the scoring and the deeply moving recurring ''Amin'', and the unexpected quiet climax in the ninth kontakion sung by a solo countertenor, are all things of extraordinary power." Gramophone