Arvo Pärt, S/D

by all means start with 'Tabula Rasa'

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002SWN6/qid=1042129401/sr=1-15/ref=sr_1_15/103-6962079-0063803?v=glance&s=classical

I'd heard but never owned Tabula Rasa until recently, but I made the mistake of getting the 'Silencio' version which is pretty boring. I remembered the piece to be much more exciting. So is it the Silencio version that particularly sucks or am I missing out on sth?

Someone at work loaned me one or two Pärt CDs several years back, but I didn't have much of a response. (It didn't helped that he framed them in the context of Steve Reich, who he knows I like, comparing Reich unfavorably to Pärt.) However, I just borrowed some Part from the library (a recording with Tabula Rasa, Fratres and Symphony No.3, and I'm enjoying it. I'm interested in the way it is at times so traditional and yet so contemporary, all at once.

I got a copy of 'Kanon Pokajanen' secondhand the other day. I listened to it last night and it's absolutely incredible. A two disc unaccompanied choral work recorded in Niguliste Church in Tallinn by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and released on ECM, it's beautiful and moving.

It's my first real exposure to Arvo Pärt, but I can sense an expensive quest to obtain more starting from here.

i work at the ballet and one of our pieces tonight used his music, Für Alina. totally hypnotic and great to watch beatiful women move to it

I think it says something, probably bad, about me, that despite Naxos et al versions of many pieces supposedly being excellent (and cheap), I'm absolutely lusting after the ECM stuff, because it looks so much classier and profound somehow. I am surface.

ECM stuff is generally excellent, nay, wonderfully rendered in my experience, although that's mostly jazz rather than classical. Their design scheme does have a certain... appealing austerity, that's for sure.

I used to listen to a lot of minimalist music (Stars of the Lid, Labradford, SAW II Aphex Twin, and millions of other bands), and Alina is possibly the best minimalist piece of music out of them all. I know of nothing else like it, nor anything as evocative.

his new symphony's playing here in a couple of months. there was a west coast premiere, apparently it's good. and uh huh - alina's something else.

i just picked up 'litany', which i am enjoying very much

I had an AP piece played at my wedding.

Which piece?!

Good question.

Better give a good answer too :)

i picked up litany, sort of picked it at random.

like it a lot.

is it a "good one"...where to proceed? is there better stuff to get? worse stuff?

Said it a couple of times on here already but trust me, Tabula Rasa.

thx ned...is "litany" generally...i guess, representative of his style overall?

In Principio, the newest one, is pretty amazing.

fratres

alina is also pretty incredible

Alina is a heart-breaker.

In Principio has some pretty out there religious liner notes. I understand he's a very religious composer, but still, the point of view here is pretty startling:

The title La Sindone refers to Jesus’ shroud (Santa Sindone) as described in the Gospel of Mark 15:46. Since 1578 this shroud has been located in Turin Cathedral. The story of the shroud, which has been scientifically examined several times, remains an enigma to the present day. . . .

The central third movement (vv.9-11) is not only the longest but the one whose message Pärt specially emphasised by repeating the words three times—something he had never done before in his vocal music. He evidently did so to send a signal directly to each and every one of us: ‘He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

At least there will be no altar call, since this is Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

I need to listen to the last composition some more. I am having trouble listening to this at all, because I don't feel comfortable cranking it up loud enough to catch all the chanegs in dynamics, but that last one stood out for me. (It's probably just easier to grasp.)

'Da Pacem Domine', the first piece on the ECM "Lamentate" CD is incredible. I absolutely love his choral work.

I also got the "24 Preludes For A Fugue" DVD a couple of weeks ago. Anyone else seen that? It made me fall in love with him as a person as well; such a funny guy, very childlike at times in his delight with strange wee aspects of the world. Seeing him think and work in the film was wonderful.

Any recommendations outwith the ECM releases? I have all the ECM & Naxos CDs, but am fancying a bit more input.

I have these two as well, both of which are excellent:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41S9HTVH5AL._SS400_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519oq8t-xLL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

The first being 'Summa' on Virgin Classics by Paavo Jarvi & the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the second being a 2CD compilation on EMI Classics featuring some great organ & choral pieces on the second disc with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent.

I'm going to go back to trawl through my old Gramphone guide.

Hyperion & Harmonia Mundi are usually solid, is my current thinking...

Anyone else think Virginia Astley must have been a fan, specifically on "From Gardens Where we feel Secure..?"

holy shit at this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c08i_9gumJs

and at the Magnificat (amazing video too)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbxnnC22gwY

this is something fundamental

there was a good program on BBC4 last week called Sacred Music, first half hour about Gorecki, second about Part. Gorecki was too ill to take part in the program himself, but they had lot of great footage of Part - hearing a radio interview he did in the 60s for the first time and reacting to it, attending the rehearsals to a new piece & giving meticulous instructions to the percussionists, talking about the influence of Estonian folk music etc. these things tend to get repeated a lot so its worth keeping an eye out.

this is slightly OT; apologies if this has already been covered: what is with the diacritic above the a in Part?

not that my irl conversations involve a lot of discussion of estonian minimalist composers.

Oh well, the ä-question. His family name is really, actually, since birth -- Pärt. That's the correct spelling.

Or did you rather mean, how to properly pronounce the name?
The ä-vowel is pronounced pretty much like, say, the a is in the English names Matt or Pat. Whats more? The r in Pärt is not silent.
...That's about it, I think.

yes i expressed that badly. I am pronouncing it correctly :)

The video of him playing through and talking about Alina posted above is amazing. I love to watch that and to see him thinking about and trying to explain what he was doing with the piece. The whole DVD that it comes from, "24 Preludes For A Fugue", is well worth getting/watching. He is an utterly charming and lovely man.

Thanks for posting that, acoleuthic. In the midst of a dreadful morning at work, it's made my day.

since then I have heard Te Deum, Fratres and the Cantus...pretty astonishing

In Nov '98 I saw Part's Litany and Trisagon performed (with the Hilliard Ensemble; two Erkki-Sven Tuur pieces were part of the programme too) at QEH. The great man was there. Gave us a little wave.

I really liked the video too. I went to the BBC website to see if the Sacred Music program was on iPlayer, but no luck.

me too. sucky.

That programme was actually part of a four-part series on sacred music (the second series made by the BBC on this topic). Other episodes in the series covered Tavener, Macmillan, Fauré &c. You can download the whole lot on torrent sites.

I've been listening to "Da Pacem Domine" from 'In Principio' a lot this last week. Absolutely breaking me to pieces in 5 and a half minutes.

There's a great live video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxKqg0Fwsro

Does your lady appreciate your Pärt?

Anyway, that was pretty good. His works are never dour - they always have this sparkle to them

My lady is lost.

I am alone in this harsh world once again.

alone, and with only the most gorgeous and threnodic of compositions to cradle your scalp

Exactly. It's been a fortnight of Frank Sinatra's downer albums & Arvo Pärt's soul-quietening beauty.

WE ARE THE BEAUTIFUL WRETCHED

Seriously, I think an album built along the twin principles of Gothic existentialism and Arvo Pärt could be quite something

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/arvo-part-te-deum-swans-avatar-from-the-seer-round-40-nicks-choices/

Percussionist Kuniko Kato's Cantus album has some incredible arrangements of Fratres, Memory of Benjamin Britten and Spiegel im Spiegel. Unsurprisingly Pärt rates her very highly, it is shame she didn't do a full album of Pärt compositions because Reich bores the arse off me these days.

oh wow this sounds lovely

thanks for the heads up as i'd probably never have come across this otherwise. off to investigate.

...and they are fantastic. smitten!

yeah thanks from me too. MP3s are cheap on Amazon, btw

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir "Da Pacem" is amazing. Will also heartily second "Alina".

US Grammy nominations:

Arvo Pärt's Adam’s Lament won nominations in two categories - Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Choral Performance (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir with Tõnu Kaljuste directing).

With the announcement of the new ECM album 'The Deer's Cry', I realise I also totally missed 'Adam's Lament' back in 2012/2013. I'll end up buying them regardless, but any opinions (on either)?

I recently picked Adam's Lament up at a Value Village, of all places - I'm by no means an expert but it's very lovely.

Thanks Simon.

I found this live performance of Adam's Lament in Toronto on Youtube and it's really beautiful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCx-Meklym0

I'll definitely be getting the album.

Viktoria Mullova / Paavo Järvi/ Estonian National Symphony Orchestra - Arvo Pärt

^^^

stunning recording with some of his best hits from the 70's!

The extant recordings are so definitive that I'm systematically disappointed by anyone else's take on these pieces. But I love them so much that I'll probably end up checking it out anyway.

in that context you might well be disappointed. It was just perfect for my mood this morning.

Which recordings do you mean by "extant"? Haven't most of Pärt's works been recorded several times by different orchestras/ensembles?

https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/silentium

wow

i've been digging this lorenzo ghielmi cd where he plays a few of part's organ works alongside 16th c organ music, like hildegard von bingen kinda stuff...

there are insane youtube videos of ghielmi playing bach on historic keyboards with his feet, guy is a monster

*the cd is called tintinnabulum

can't believe I never told my Pärt story here before, I got to see the US premiere of Litany (1995 I think?) where he was present and spoke about the piece briefly. The orchestra played it through once, stopping along the way for the conductor to explain details on the composition etc, then after that they played it through uninterrupted, great experience.

That sounds great— he was present at a concert of his chamber music in DC but I don’t remember if he said anything. What I do remember is a concert by the Tallinn Chamber Choir which was introduced by a former president of Estonia (a Canadian of Estonian extraction who went to the old country after independence) who told us in no uncertain terms that Pärt’s name was pronounced “pert” and not “pay-ert”.

In any case I used to be really into his music but lately I feel like he hits a mark and never stops. Johnny one note as it were.

dammit I was pronouncing it in Finnish and apparently not Estonian (not kidding)

gotta realign my entire worldview of this guy brb

i decided to look into it and it looks like the estonian ä isn't a sound we have in our north american english -- sounds like it's at the midway point between part and pair-t, so i think sadly there may be no way to say it correctly without sounding pretentious :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXdQGAv9bk

yeah, I just watched that video as well and I was gonna say, it's like "parrot" but squashed into one syllable.

I was recently loving his angels and the city symphony (no 4) but also troubled that he dedicated it to Russian oligarch, Khodorkovsky. Like ok, I get that he detested the Soviet Union and hates Putin, but still please keep billionaires out of music ffs

The Forvo site is a pretty good repository of authentic pronunciations, and the three audio files here offer a similar pronunciation of Arvo Pärt's name.

https://forvo.com/word/arvo_p%C3%A4rt/#et

went to this event 2 weeks ago which was hosted by Mississippi Records. https://www.instagram.com/anthologyfilmarchives/p/DGyk8VYhEus/?img_index=1

Played a Dorian Supin doc about Arvo that I hadn't seen before called Arvo Part - And Then Came the Evening and the Morning. Pretty incredible if you're a fan. Had this new vinyl for sale too.

I love that version of Silentium.

i do too but i’m a fan of playing stuff at half the speed in general

Well, yes.

https://ecmrecords.com/product/fine-art-print-alina/

I have to confess that part of me would enjoy having that on my wall.

Me too, but since they are only selling it framed it’s too pricey for me

Any recommendations from this series? [In Oxford but presumably repeated elsewhere).

https://www.musicatoxford.com/whats-on/?utm_source=paid+social&utm_medium=meta&utm_campaign=LB+2024-5+Season+Local+Purchase&utm_content=Season+Launch+General+for+Sep+2025&utm_id=120214422107140533&utm_term=120227482222950533&fbclid=IwY2xjawMUahVleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqyKF9AMgpQEexemfXwGkTz2JnCbj2r0xMfmoqbtRHlzGWIqoysWNriT7M0g9EGKgKOlKhFk_aem_c0Eth2uwqDtmW6y9LfWQ2A

Lots of good Naxos recordings. The reason they get such quality as a "budget" label is because they would record state-funded orchestras and pay them in product. High quality, low overhead, pretty well curated.

this is really nice
https://www.discogs.com/release/14702747-Arvo-P%C3%A4rt-Alea-Saxophone-Quartet-Anima

…maybe in small doses tho, its a somber mood that doesnt let up

Well, i’m off to watch cartoons.

I was briefly, obsessed with his music, but intese listening over s ahrot period of tie has led me to believe that, at least with choral music, he has hit his mark and keeps at it relentlessly. Too many of the choral pieces are interchangeable to me and have little variety, either within the pieces or among them. If you've heard one, you've heard them all.

His instrumentral music I find more interesting, espcially how flexible a piece like Fratres is, and how it can work with diverse combinations of instruments. Honestly his earliest music is the most interesting to me, particularly Credo.

Funny you mention that, I think my favorite is Pari Intervallo, for unspecified instrumentation. I was just listening to a bunch of renditions of that for different instrumental voices- solo organ, two pianos, saxophone quartet…

I don’t totally *love* Part tho. He always promises something i really want and then doesn’t quite deliver. I’d rather be listening to Perotin or bianzhong most of the time. It’s too self aware pr something.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/arts/music/arvo-part-90th-birthday.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE8.UY4X.Rlbvd9VBF_GT&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

90th birthday tribute article with links to music, some overview of his life, praise from rockers and others