WB Yeats:
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
The Mother of God

John Tavener:
The Protecting Veil
Mother and Child (arr. Barley)

Frithjof Schuon:
World Wheel XXVII - ‘I heard the gypsy’s violin play’

Pandit Sultan Khan:
The Song of Separation and Waiting

“Transcendent With Awesome Majesty”. John Tavener wrote these words above the opening cello notes of The Protecting Veil, immediately communicating the scale of this universal, timeless, structurally perfect and emotionally powerful work. In the composer’s words “The cello represents The Mother of God and never stops singing”. Indeed, the cello sings without stopping for the entire 46 minutes of the piece, requiring huge mental and physical stamina. Matthew Barley leads Sinfonietta Riga in this exploration of Tavener’s musical works and inspirations, interspersing performances with readings of WB Yeats and Frithjof Schuon by renowned actors Julie Christie and Olwyn Fouéré. The influence Tavener drew from Indian music in The Protecting Veil is also explored further in Barley’s performance with tabla player Sukhvinder ‘Pinky’ Singh in The Song of Separation and Waiting by Pandit Sultan Khan. Matthew Barley is known internationally as a cellist, improviser, arranger, music animateur, and as Artistic Director of Between The Notes. His musical world is focused on projects that connect people in different ways, blurring the boundaries that never really existed between genres and people.

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Recorded at Petruskyrkan, Stocksund, Sweden, 19th August 2017; The Anglican Church, Riga, Latvia, 2nd and 3rd July 2018; London, 26th September 2018, 4th November 2018. Matthew Barley plays a Cesare Gigli cello from Rome, c.1750.