Lady of Light (1991)

Listening to this disc I wonder how much Tavener and the mystico-religious melodics (Rautavaara, Pärt, Silvestrov, Macmillan) owe to the Armenian master.(...) The muscular, large-scale cantata, Lady of Light has a winning strangeness that is bound to make it new friends if only people will give it one hearing. The music is (...) singable and Eastern all at the same time. This is not Russian orientalism, nor French nor anyone else's but taps a sense of authentic otherness on which few can draw. (...) Avak has Hovhaness's hieratically singing trumpet floating over a bed of Vaughan Williams-style (Tallis) strings with cross-currents evocative of Rózsa's summer nights in Hungary. As for the purity of Marni Nixon's voice swaying and dancing in the heat haze it deserves far more celebrity than it has ever been accorded. This is a disc for voice aficionados as well as those keen to hear Hovhaness tackling the human voice. (...) Another triumph in the Crystal Hovhaness series. (musicweb-international.com)