well it was more Peter Bouteneff who
was dismissive on that ground...he
quoted someone as saying admiiringly
of Taverner
"the photo showing the open shirt with
the cross on his chest hair..that says
it all!"
and Peter said in effect although perhaps
a bit more strongly ,although he does not
speak strongly in his own fields of dogmatics
and jazz which is a winsome thing maybe,
"fageddaboudit!"

I do not care what he does with his shirt but
I never much liked his music either in theory
or in fact... I admire the music of Olivier
Messiaen and the thought behind it but I cannot
say that Ihave enjoyed listening to it....
but if it redeems my taste at all I liked
Verkarte Nacht and admire the faith of its
composer and his life as far as I know it too.
+Seraphim.