JOHN TAVENER (b.1944): Zodiacs, Ypakoë, Palin, Mandoodles, Pratirupa, In Memory of Two Cats.

Description: Collectors familiar with Tavener's famous vocal/choral/orchestral works will find a more distilled language (necessarily) in these solo piano pieces. In fact, in the early (1977) Palin, they'll find a twelve-tone series and dissonant harmonies. But the two major works are Ypakoë (1997), a contemplative meditation on the Passion which has passages in Greek and Middle Eastern style inspired by the Greek stringed instrument kanokaki, and the 2003 Pratirupa (Sanskrit for "Reflection") in which a slow, ritualistic manner, broken at times by loud oubursts of joy as of pealing bells, is accented by Samavedic rhythms.