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• RCA's release of The Veil of the Temple is a concert-length version, first heard at the 2004 Proms. Accommodated on two CDs and lasting just two hours, the recording is taken from the memorable first performances, whose unique atmosphere and magical sense of theatre and ritual is faithfully captured on the discs ... there are plenty of breathtakingly beautiful and spiritually intense moments here - notably the four sublime sections Tavener is now transcribing into Anthems and the hauntingly memorable version of The Jesus Prayer which recurs throughout, acting, as the composer puts it, as the 'heartbeat' of the work. The choral contributions, under the expert and inspiring guidance of Stephen Layton, are both assured and fervent. Even listeners implacably unconvinced by Tavener's music should seek out this remarkable piece. I hope some enterprising record company will one day have the courage and vision to release a full version with these artists, preferably also on DVD in the Temple Church, whose physical spaces are built into the very fabric of the score.
  Paul Conway, Tempo, 01 October 2005
• This is pure Tavener, Plainsong with a slightly modern feel. For Tavener devotees a must have.
  Christopher Monk, Musical Opinion, 01 September 2005
• In its all-night form, The Veil of the Temple's message of reconciliation of faiths and universal spiritual values registered powerfully. Thanks to its 'concert version', it has gone on to speak far beyond the precincts of London's Temple Church. This recording preserves the intensity of expression and coruscating beauty of singing inspired by Tavener's music.
  Andrew Stewart, Classic fM magazine, 01 April 2005
• The Veil of the Temple is a condensed, concert version of John Tavener's immense All-Night Vigil. In the church calendar it's the grand rite that follows the progression from the darkness of night to the dawn of Easter Day, paralleling it with Christ's suffering, death and resurrection. So, despite its enormous length, it's a ritual with a sustained, often very moving narrative thread. Tavener's setting is far from operatic - though there is a touching reference to Wagner's Tristan at the darkest point in the Passion story. It is, as one would expect from this composer's music, highly ritualised, with much of the music firmly anchored to sustained, primal drone bass. But the way in which Tavener manages to combine the timeless, primordial element with a compelling sense of underlying progress is masterly. Broadly speaking the means to this end are very simple: the drone bass slowly rises, the harmonies become richer, the choral forces grow in size, until the apocalyptic C major fortissimo, enriched by massed brass and timpani, of the culminating New Jerusalem Hymn.
  
  The performance is outstanding, capturing the range of colour and expression in Tavener's highly original choral writing to magical effect, while the recording is finely responsive to the atmosphere of London's Temple Church. Warmly recommended.
  Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine, 01 April 2005
• Surprisingly, given the rigorous theological argument that led Tavener to construct The Veil in a series of eight 'cycles', we learn that this version was conceived of as such right from the beginning of the longer work's gestation. We should be glad, as it contains much that is vintage Tavener.
  
  Though Tavener's theology in The Veil is a personal, argued yoking-together of mystical texts from Sufi, Protestant and Greek Orthodox writers, his sound-world is so monumental, confident and suffused with an ecstatic vision that one is tempted - and I have the feeling that the composer would approve - to eschew criticism altogether.
  
  The Veil joins The Akathist of Thanksgiving, We shall see Him as He is and The Apocalypse itself among those works on which Tavener's eminent position rightly rests. For though the work is long and Tavener's musical translation of attitudes towards God familiar from his earlier pieces, there is not a bar that isn't beautifully realized, whether its focus is petition, celebration and worship, where his close four-part harmonies sometimes sound like high-quality Victorian hymns. The ending, after uncharacteristically over-triumphant trumpets amid choral rejoicing give way to a simple round of 'Shantih' decrescendo as the choir departs, is a master-stroke.
  
  Tavener's excellent score will satisfy those of all faiths - and none - with its own strengths.
  Robert Stein, International Record Review, 01 March 2005
• Even at one-third of its full length, The Veil, with its rich mix of Orthodox, Indian and English devotional gestures, is a mesmerising experience, a convincing journey from dusk till dawn.
  
  Patricia Rozario is at her heart-stoppingly beautiful best, and there are marvellous contributions from tenor soloists Simon Wall and Nathan Vale and basses Adrian Peacock and Jeremy Birchall. As the ritual moves towards the final revelations, Stephen Layton deftly marshals the swirling chorales and increasingly elemental brass and percussion, keeping everything in sharp focus through to the closing celebratory hymn.
  Barry Witherden, Gramophone, 01 March 2005
• Tavener's The Veil of the Temple is massive in scale and influence; the sheer number of singers (more than 200), in combination with orchestrations encompassing elements of mid-eastern, eastern Indian, Tibetan and traditional western liturgical musical traditions is staggering. All this, in combination with texts from Islam, Christianity and Hinduism makes for one mind-boggling aural experience. The work is rooted in a commission from London's Temple Church for an all-night vigil to be performed June 27-28, 2003. That work lasted eight (yes, eight!) hours; the current version was drawn as a concert-length piece from that performance, and the SACD actually uses excerpts from the original performance and an additional all-night vigil in July of that same year. The Temple Church, built in the round by the Knights Templar in the twelfth century, serves as an excellent acoustic environment for Tavener's massive work. The fact that the church figures so prominently in Dan Brown's sensationalist novel The DaVinci Code only adds a sense of intrigue to the goings-on here.
  
  The music, while essentially based extensively on a traditional mass, is arranged in eight cycles. Cycle I is prefaced by the "Mystical Love Song of the Sufis," a quite lovely offering which is interspersed with a healthy dose of playing on a duduk, a mid-eastern reed instrument similar in character to the saxophone. This is followed by the "Primordial Call," a blast of gongs, Tibetan horns and tubular bells which is really quite striking and will test the limits of your system's endurance. Although the music throughout involves an enormous number of participants, it's really relatively subdued in nature – just avoid the temptation to crank the volume too loudly, or you'll get quite a start. From that point, a "Primordial Call" prefaces each of the Cycles – be prepared to get shaken, and often.
  
  In terms of sound quality, this disc is truly a knockout – the 5.1 surround presentation accurately captures the musical forces inside the Temple Church and offers a most compelling realization of the church's acoustic. Stephen Layton, among the very best of England's stellar crop of choral conductors, is to be applauded for his superb work here.
  Tom Gibbs, www.audaud.com