Ypakoë (1997)
(Ypakoe)

“John Tavener has found a vein of simplicity that each new work seems to exploit yet again; and just as you think ‘I’ve heard this before’, the sheer beauty he finds in his material suspends criticism: a single diamond can refract light in many different ways…[Ypakoë] begins with a dramatic opening gesture at the extremes of the keyboard, and then falls into clearly distinguishable sections, each taking a different approach to the keyboard: alternating patterns between the hands, two-part invention, chordal textures, trills over melodic figures in the left hand, the whole haunted by a gentle chorale figure that suggests Bach looking to Byzantium…”