This is the second recording of what must rank as one of Jonathan Harvey’s most important and approachable works. No one need feel intimidated by its subtitle – “for 15 instrumentalists and quadrophonic tape”. This is a score whose energy and eloquence appeal as directly as its rich tapestry of (live and recorded) sounds. The work may have originated in the subterranean caverns of IRCAM in Paris, but the music is full of light and air.
Bhakti is also a religious work: the Hindu term which provides its title means “devotion to a god, as a path to salvation”, and most of the movements have quotations from the Rig Veda placed at the end. As with Messiaen, or Stravinsky, however, these theological specifics need not place constraints on accessibility to those who have different beliefs or concerns. Rather they generate a musical process which can be appreciated in and for itself – a ‘path’ that encompasses a brilliantly realized musical drama of unusual harmoniousness, with the kind of explicit integration around a central pitch (heard most clearly at the very beginning) which is rare in progressive twentieth-century music.
The NMC recording of Bhakti was derived from a BBC recording made in 1984. This new version is inevitably superior in the acoustic sense, and while matters of interpretative preference may be less straightforward, this performance by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne carries great conviction and technical sophistication. I should declare an interest, having provided the English language notes.'