Album

The reputation of Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt continues to grow; some see him as more than a niche composer defined by spirituality, holy minimalism, and his often-shifting "tintinnabuli" technique. Is Pärt the much sought-after great composer of our time? The international nature of his enthusiast base works in his favor; it extends far beyond to Baltic states to early music groups in Western Europe and England, to Americans who latch onto the predominantly Christian outlook of Pärt's work, and to Russia, as demonstrated by this fabulous disc featuring violinist/conductor Vladimir Spivakov and his Moscow Virtuosi. The good news for Pärt and his admirers here is that this is something of a "mainline" performance of Pärt's music, marking its penetration into the repertoires of groups beyond his specialist orbit. The choir that joins Spivakov for the Berliner Messe (Berlin Mass), the Choir of the Academy of Choral Art, is a meaty Russian group, filling out the limits of the pitch with blended vibrato. It's quite a different sound from the Hilliard Ensemble and the various Baltic groups that strive for purity and ethereality with Pärt, and it succeeds beautifully. The composer's hyperconsonant musical vocabulary may condition you to expect perfectly flawless pitches at first, but it also calibrates the ear so well that all kinds of new effects emerge in Spivakov's performance—which is of course just what the composer was after. The other major virtue of this disc is the program, which heads backward from the Berliner Messe through Fratres (originally written in 1977 even if the violin-and-strings version here dates from later), and finally to the Collage über B-A-C-H of 1964, a work from the years before Pärt hit on his characteristic style. It's something like Stravinsky's Pulcinella in the way it veers off from neo-Baroque music into atonality, but it also makes clear that even at this early date Pärt was interested in large masses of sound and what they could do. Then, as listeners go forward again through Summa (1977, revised 1991) and the Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1980), they hear a variety of techniques that Pärt worked out to complement the basic subtle repetitions of his tintinnabuli sound. At the end is a masterstroke: Spivakov programs the rarely heard Mozart-Adagio of 1992, an arrangement by Pärt for piano trio of the adagio of a Mozart piano sonata—with elements from Pärt's sound world beautifully added in. One realizes that Pärt's minimalism, like that of Adams, has come a long way, that his language, despite the illusion of simplicity lent by the extreme consonance of the music, involves a lot of choices. The disc is a model survey of a contemporary composer's output, and it's gorgeous. The disc was made at Moscow's Radio and Recording House; the sound seems a bit boxy at times, but the dynamics of Pärt's music come through in full.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
Arvo Pärt Composer Berliner Messe, for chorus and organ Work 28:49 Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Victor Popov Choirmaster, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble
1	1.Kyrie	3:01			$0.99
2	2.Gloria	4:54			$0.99
3	3a.Alleluia Verse 1	1:19			$0.99
4	3b.Alleluia Verse 1	1:56			$0.99
5	4a.Alleluia Verse 2	1:16			$0.99
6	4b.Alleluia Verse 2	1:40			$0.99
7	5.Veni Sancte Spiritus	5:46			$0.99
8	6.Credo	4:03			$0.99
9	7.Sanctus	2:35			$0.99
10	8.Agnus dei	2:19			$0.99
Arvo Pärt Composer Fratres, for cello and piano Work Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble
11	Fratres, for cello and piano	10:06			$1.99
Arvo Pärt Composer Collage over B-A-C-H, for strings, oboe, harpsichord, and piano Work 8:36 Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Alexei Utkin Oboe, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble
12	1.Toccata: Preciso	2:40			$0.99
13	2.Sarabande: Lento	4:31			$0.99
14	3.Ricercare: Deciso	1:25			$0.99
Arvo Pärt Composer Summa Work Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble
15	Summa	4:23			$0.99
Arvo Pärt Composer Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, for string orchestra and bell Work Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Ensemble
16	Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, for string orchestra and bell	7:37			$1.49
Arvo Pärt Composer Mozart-Adagio, for violin, cello and piano Work Sergei Bezrodny Piano, Vladimir Spivakov Violin, Viacheslav Marinyuk Cello
17	Mozart-Adagio, for violin, cello and piano	6:26			$0.99