Reviews
Review Search
There’s a quiet and cumulative power to these works, given performances of luminous purity by Polyphony and Stephen Layton.
‘There’s a line in this disc’s title track, from an Orthodox ode addressed to Saint Nicholas: “therewithal hast thou acquired: by humility – greatness, by poverty – riches.” This might have been written about Arvo Pärt’s compositional technique, here liberated from the...
Polyphony’s earlier album devoted to the a cappella choral music of the Estonian cult composer featured pieces written between 1988 and 1991. This new release comprises works, some recorded here for the first time, of more recent provenance (1996-2002) Of the eight pieces, two are settings of the traditional Latin liturgy, Nunc Dimittis (2001) and Salve Regina (2002) but we also find the “Holy...
Neues von Arvo Pärt, dem aus Estland stammenden, jetzt 68jährigen Repräsentanten einer kreativ auf minimalistisch-harmonischen Klangstrukturen basierenden Moderne. Alle hier im Januar des Jahres 2003 produzierten Beiträge sind zwischen 1996 und 2002 komponiert worden. Sie gehören ausnahmslos zur Gattung geistlicher, liturgisch ungebundener Vokalmusik. In dieser Eigenschaft konfrontiert das...
If one word could stand for Arvo Part’s recent choral output, it would surely be inclusivity, not just because of the composers return to the simple austere harmonies favoured in his early sacred pieces (although that’s a considerable part of the deal in Triodion and Salve Regina), but chiefly thanks to the clarity of his spiritual message. The central section of Dopo la Victoria, a mini-cantata...
More than any other composer alive today Arvo Pärt has given us back the idea of eloquent beautiful simplicity. Granted, he can take his asceticism too far – sometimes numinous purity shades over into mere plainness. But with the exception of the creakily formulaic setting of My Hearts in the Highlands, that’s not the case with any of the works recorded here. Again and again there’s a sense of...
This is John Tavener's magnum opus. At seven hours' duration, lasting from dusk to dawn, The Veil of the Temple is one of the longest continuous choral pieces ever written. Around 150 performers take part in a score requiring duduk, Tibetan horn, simantron and Indian harmonium, as well as soprano soloist, choir and organ, a supply of candles and copious amounts of incense. Embracing diverse...