PART: ARVO PART COLLECTION (9 CDS)

The most comprehensive collection ever issued of Arvo Pärt’s music, surveying the full range of an output from one of the most distinctive voices in late 20th-century music.

Subsequently and exhaustively imitated, the language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is immediately recognisable, speaking with the ‘still small voice of calm’ amid chaos and confusion. Born in 1935, Pärt reached compositional maturity in the late 60s with a series of works which painfully juxtaposed modernist dissonances with diatonic islands of peace, often Christian in message and raining down criticism from Soviet authorities.

At this point the evolution of his style produced an unassuming piano piece, Für Alina, which holds the key to the next 25 years of his music. For it he developed a ‘tintinnabuli’ technique where melodies move step by step around a central pitch, producing a soundworld timeless yet original and distinctively new.

From the technique grew instant classics of a genre at one remove from the slick certainties of US minimalism: Fratres and its many arrangements (eight of them represented here), the Cantus in memory of Britten, Tabula rasa for a Baroque sized concerto grosso ensemble and more. Then, having emigrated to Germany, Pärt applied the technique to the Christian texts which were always his rock and inspiration: first the St John Passion in 1982, followed by a sheaf of vocal works such as the Magnificat, Stabat Mater and Maria Antiphons which have become standard repertoire for choirs around the world.

In the last 20 years the harmonies in his music have filled out and become accommodated to a Romantic richness of expression even in sacred works such as I am the true vine and The Woman with the Alabaster Box, but there remains an individual simplicity to Pärt’s idiom that resists easy classification while continuing to affirm beauty and touch the souls of listeners.

All the works mentioned here are included in the box, in widely praised modern recordings made during the last 20 years, and the set is accompanied by full booklet notes.

Arvo Pärt (born 1935) is without doubt one of the best-known and -loved composers of today. His highly personal style, influenced by Gregorian Chant, is based on slowly shifting patterns, tintinnabuli (little bells), creating a meditative and hallucinatory effect, a visionary world of spiritual contemplation. Pärt’s sacred choral works enjoy a huge popularity with both the traditional classical audience as well as an open-minded new generation.
This substantial collection brings together Pärt’s best-known and loved works, both instrumental and vocal: Spiegel im Spiegel, Für Alina, Tabula Rasa, Fratres, Magnificat, Berliner Messe, St. John Passion, as well as organ works and the complete piano works.
Excellent performances by Le Nuove Musiche/Krijn Koetsveld, Leeds Cathedral Choir, Ulster Orchestra, Jeroen van Veen and many others.
The booklet contains extensive liner notes on the composer and his works.

Disk 1
10000 2Arvo Pärt: Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka 3Arvo Pärt: Für Alina 4Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel for Viola & Piano 5Arvo Pärt: Mozart-Adagio 6Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel for Cello & Piano
Disk 2
1Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa: I. Ludus 2Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa: II. Silentium 3Arvo Pärt: Collage über Bach: I. Toccata 4Arvo Pärt: Collage über Bach: II. Sarabande 5Arvo Pärt: Collage über Bach: III. Ricercare 6Arvo Pärt: Symphony No. 3: I. First Movement 7Arvo Pärt: Symphony No. 3: II. Second Movement 8Arvo Pärt: Symphony No. 3: III. Third Movement
Disk 3
1Arvo Pärt: Fratres for Strings and Percussion 2Arvo Pärt: Fratres for Violin, Strings and Percussion 3Arvo Pärt: Festina lente for Strings and Harp ad libitum 4Arvo Pärt: Fratres for String Quartet 5Arvo Pärt: Fratres for Cello and Piano 6Arvo Pärt: Summa for Strings 7Arvo Pärt: Fratres for 8 Cellos 8Arvo Pärt: Fratres for Wind Octet and Percussion 9Arvo Pärt: Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
Disk 4
1Arvo Pärt: Magnificat 2Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis 3Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: I. O Weisheit 4Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: II. O Adonai 5Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: III. O Spross aus Isias Wurzel 6Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: IV. O Schüssel Davids 7Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: V. O Morgenstern 8Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: VI. O König aller Völker 9Arvo Pärt: Maria Antifonen: VII. O Immanuel 10Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater
Disk 5
1Arvo Pärt: Jesus is Betrayed and Arrested in Gethsemane (exordium; John 18:1-12) 2Arvo Pärt: Jesus is Interrogated by the High Priest and Denied by Peter (John 18:13-27) 3Arvo Pärt: Jesus is Judged by Pilate and Reviled by the People (John 18:28-19:15) 4Arvo Pärt: Jesus is Crucified at Golgotha (John 19:16-30; conclusio)
Disk 6
1Arvo Pärt: The Beatitudes 2Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: I. Kyrie 3Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: II. Gloria 4Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: III. Erster Alleluiavers 5Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: IV. Zweiter Alleluiavers 6Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: V. Veni sancte spiritus 7Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: VI. Credo 8Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: VII. Sanctus 9Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe: VIII. Agnus dei 10Arvo Pärt: Cantate domino 11Arvo Pärt: Annum per Annum, Einleitung – K – G – C – S – A – Coda 12Arvo Pärt: Mein Weg hat Gipfel und Wellentäler 13Arvo Pärt: Pari intervallo 14Arvo Pärt: Trivium 15Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
Disk 7
1Arvo Pärt: Triodion: I. Introduction. Ad libitum – Ode I. O Jesus the Son of God, Have Mercy upon Us 2Arvo Pärt: Triodion: II. Ode II. O Most Holy Birth-giver of God, Save Us 3Arvo Pärt: Triodion: III. Ode III. O Holy Saint Nicholas, Pray to God for Us Coda. ad libitum 4Arvo Pärt: Tribute to Caesar, St Matthew 22, 15-22 5Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis, St Luke 2, 29-32 6Arvo Pärt: Ode VII from Kanon Pokajanen 7Arvo Pärt: I Am the True Vine 8Arvo Pärt: The Woman with the Alabaster Box, St Matthew 26, 6-13 9Arvo Pärt: Dopo la vittoria 10Arvo Pärt: Bogoróditse Djévo
Disk 8
1Arvo Pärt: Für Alina 2Arvo Pärt: Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka 3Arvo Pärt: Ukuaru valss 4Arvo Pärt: Für Anna Maria 5Arvo Pärt: Für Alina 6Arvo Pärt: Pari intervallo 7Arvo Pärt: Hymn to a Great City 8Arvo Pärt: Für Anna Maria 9Arvo Pärt: Für Alina 10Arvo Pärt: Fratres 11Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
Disk 9
1Arvo Pärt: Musik für Kindertheater: I. Der gestiefelte Kater 2Arvo Pärt: Musik für Kindertheater: II. Rotkäppchen und der Wolf 3Arvo Pärt: Musik für Kindertheater: III. Schmetterlinge 4Arvo Pärt: Musik für Kindertheater: IV. Tanz der Entenküken 5Arvo Pärt: Sonatina No. 1: I. Allegro 6Arvo Pärt: Sonatina No. 1: II. Larghetto 7Arvo Pärt: Sonatina No. 1: III. Allegro 8Arvo Pärt: Sonatine No. 2: I. Allegro energico 9Arvo Pärt: Sonatine No. 2: II. Largo 10Arvo Pärt: Sonatine No. 2: III. Allegro 11Arvo Pärt: Partita Op. 2: I. Toccatina 12Arvo Pärt: Partita Op. 2: II. Fughetta 13Arvo Pärt: Partita Op. 2: III. Larghetto 14Arvo Pärt: Partita Op. 2: IV. Ostinato 15Arvo Pärt: Für Alina