In this small-scale song cycle Taverner coloured his melodic Soprano lines with Eastern European and Slavic flavour. At some points the composer interplayed the Piano line with the sung melody and at other times used the Pianoas drone and allows the Vocal line to soar above. The ‘love’ of the title is according to the composer ‘the notion of Eros raised to the divine ’ and the texts are written mostly by monks.John Tavener was that rare creature acomposer of serious music and serious religious music who has also achieved commercial success. He burst into the popular consciousness with the performance of his Song for Athene at the funeral of Princess Diana but had been ahighly respected and frequently-performed composer since the premiere of his dramatic cantata The Whale in 1968.

All the songs in The Voice of Desire are conversations between humans and birds. In each case the birds seem to have a more sophisticated viewpoint that their human hearers.One of the highlights is Written OnTerrestrial Things set in a dead landscape at the dead of winter. Suddenly a joyus thrush melody breaks out it's ecstatic expression is completely at odds with human perceptions of such a dismal evening has nature somethingto remind us if only we'd listen. The song cycle was commissioned by the BBC for Alice Coote and first performed by her and Julius Drake (piano) in a BBC Proms Chamber Music concert in London on 11 August 2003.