Composer: Arvo Pärt
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: ECM
Size: 578 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Adam’s Lament
02. Beatus Petronius
03. Salve Regina
04. Statuit ei Dominus
05. Alleluia-Tropus
06. L’Abbe Agathon
07. Estonian Lullaby
08. Christmas Lullaby
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Latvian Radio Choir
Sinfonietta Riga
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tonu Kaljuste
Vox Clamantis
Marshalling orchestral and choral forces under the direction of Tonu Kaljuste, this new Arvo Part album, produced by Manfred Eicher and realized, like all Part s ECM discs, with the composers participation, is a major event. Sacred music predominates, by turns monumentally powerful and tenderly fragile. Compositions featured, in premiere recordings made in Tallinns Niguliste Church, are: Adams Lament for choir and string orchestra; Beatus Petronius for two choirs, eight woodwind instruments, tubular bells and string orchestra; Salve Regina for choir, celesta and string orchestra; Statuit ei Dominus for two choirs, woodwinds and string orchestra; Alleluia-Tropus for choir and string orchestra; LAbbe Agathon for soprano, baritone, female choir and string orchestra. The album concludes with two lullabies Estonian Lullaby and Christmas Lullaby for female choir and string orchestra. In title piece Adams Lament Part uses a poetic text by Silouan of Athos to emphasize our common heritage in the figure of Adam. Adam is all of us who bear his legacy. This Total Adam has been suffering and lamenting for thousands of years on Earth. Adam himself, our primal father, foresaw the human tragedy and experienced it as his personal guilt. He has suffered all human cataclysms, unto the depths of despair.
I had the good fortune to have performed Adam’s Lament twice and the Salve Regina and Estonian Lullaby once over the past several years with a very good city chorus. Adam’s Lament is a masterful work with remarkable music that ‘inhabits’ and expresses the powerful emotional content of the text. The music is often spare and halting with silences and pauses where the reverberation and echoes linger in an almost mystical way. As a counterpoint to the sections with the chorus in full voice, full of dissonance and driving tempos, the work is dramatic and moving. This recording is wonderful. The interpretation is right on and the resonant sound of the recording – so essential to this work which can sound disjointed and without continuity if the venue is too dry – is ideal. The Salve Regina, performed with precision and intensity, is an absolute joy. As far as I’m concerned, this recording is richly rewarding and will be the reference against which all others will be compared.