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Post by Slinger on Oct 4, 2018 16:38:45 GMT
Arvo Pärt - Creator Spiritus  As my original choice appears to have bombed big-time I thought I'd " do a Jerry," and make a second choice for the month. Arvo Pärt was born in 1935 in Paide, Estonia. After studies with Heino Eller’s composition class in Tallinn, he worked from 1958 to 1967 as a sound engineer for Estonian Radio. In 1980 he emigrated with his family to Vienna and then, one year later, travelled on a DAAD scholarship to Berlin. He is known as one of the most radical representatives of the so-called ‘Soviet Avant-garde.’ I still find parts of his work, especially some earlier offerings, unlistenable, but the old boy seems to have mellowed somewhat with age, especially where his choral compositions are concerned. After 1971 he immersed himself in early music, reinvestigating the roots of Western music. He studied plainsong, Gregorian chant and the emergence of polyphony in the European Renaissance. Lastly, for you Stabat Mater collectors, the album finishes with Pärt's own beautiful, 26 minute, stripped back, Stabat... I hope you'll take this as an invitation to explore more of Arvo Pärt's world. My suggestion would be to start with his compositions from 1976 onwards. For the track listings, I've also researched the date that each piece was written. Where two, or more, dates are given I'm assuming this to mean that the later dates indicate revisions. | TRACK | YEAR | ARTISTS | | 1- Veni Creator | 2006 | a,b,c,d | | 2 - The Deer's Cry | 2008 | b,c | | 3 - Psalom | 1985/91/95/97 | d,e | | 4 - Most Holy Mother of God | 2003 | b,c | | 5 - Solfeggio | 1964/96 | d,e | | 6 - My Heart's in the Highlands | 2000 | c,d,f | | 7 - Peace Upon You, Jerusalem | 2002 | b,c | | 8 - Ein Wallfahrtslied | 1984/2001 | b,e,g | | 9 - Morning Star | 2007 | b,c | | 10 - Stabat Mater | 1985 | a,b,e |
- Theatre of Voices, b - Ars Nova Copenhagen, c - Paul Hillier (Baritone, Conductor), d - Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (Organ), e - NYYD String Quartet, f - Else Torp (Soprano), g - Chris Watson (Tenor) Paul Hillier, the conductor and leader of "Theatre of Voices" is also Arvo Pärt's biographer. |
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 4, 2018 17:01:17 GMT
Interesting, not heard this album or most of the works before, the Stabat Mater is certainly a wonderful piece - playing the album now. I do find it curious, Paul, that you only seem happy to listen to seriously laid back contemporary classical music but are full of evangelical zeal for the full nuclear option with dead blokes like Mahler.  |
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Post by Slinger on Oct 4, 2018 17:23:37 GMT
Mahler (for example) speaks to me; his music moves me. A lot of modern/contemporary classical only moves me further away from the stereo. It sounds like somebody throwing an orchestra at a wall to see what sticks. And then there's my favourite, the percussion that sounds like a bloke carrying a box of cutlery has fallen down a cast iron spiral staircase. There's no structure to it or at least none that I can discern. I do like a "bit of a tune" in my music. Not necessarily something I can whistle, but at least something I can identify. I play musical instruments and maybe it's just that I'm looking for some sort of frame of reference within the pieces I like which doesn't exist for me in some modern works. Lots of instruments played loudly and apparently fighting each other means absolutely nothing to me, whereas pieces like the final movement of Mahler's 8th or the Adagietto from his 5th affect me in a positive and a spiritual way.
Of course, that's only my opinion and thankfully everyone is not of the same opinion otherwise it would be a bloody boring old world. I'd never thought of listening to Arvo Pärt until I heard some of his music performed by The Sixteen. Classic FM introduced me to Górecki and Glass? Well, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about and decided that I was very glad that I tried him on for size.
Back to Arvo Pärt and Mahler though. I find beauty in their work and that's pretty much the beginning and the end point for me. A lot of contemporary music I find simply sounds "ugly" to me.
That's about the best I can do, explaining myself off the cuff like this, Jerry.
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 4, 2018 18:09:08 GMT
Yes, I do know where you are coming from with a lot of contemporary classical.
I can't stick Birtwhistle at any price - just cacophany and noise to me, for example.
But for me there remains a lot of interesting stuff out there - OK, it seldom has a tune outside of the Part/Gorecki 3rd laidback camp, but I find that I'm not that fussed about tunes these days.
Listening (for the 2nd time) to Vasks' flute concerto atm - it's fabulous!
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 4, 2018 18:51:14 GMT
... back to Oct pt.2
The StabatM gets a full 5 star treatment from me, I find it an amazing work - but I have to confess to the heresy of finding an increasingly tedious sameness to Part's more recent efforts.
He needs to evolve a bit - new ideas rather than rest on his laurels.
It is all very pleasant at the very least, though.
4/5.
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Post by julesd68 on Oct 4, 2018 19:33:11 GMT
When I went to the miraculous 40th anniversary concert of The Tallis Scholars at St Pauls back in 2012 they sang Arvo Pärt’s Nunc Dimittis along with the usual suspects.
I remember being rather pleasantly surprised at the time!
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Post by julesd68 on Oct 5, 2018 10:41:18 GMT
The Stabat Mater is entirely new to me. I did my best and managed 15 mins but I find it a work of very limited scope - tonally and structurally it meanders aimlessly with the same musical themes stuck in the familiar loop of this style of music. Will see how I get on with the other works!  |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 7, 2018 17:31:02 GMT
I'm listening now and it sounds like Part's typically pared-back, minimalist soundscape. He does hit some fabulous dissonances, though, and the whole is better than its structure promises. The choir are fabulous.
The Stabat Mater makes beautiful sounds. Yes, it does meander, but I guess that is the nature of the piece. It doesn't hold a candle to Poulenc's 20th Century masterpiece, though. 4/5.
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