Track Listing

1. Te Deum, for 2 choruses, strings, prepared piano & tape
2. Silouans Song, for string orchestra
3. Magnificat, for chorus
4. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Kyrie
5. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Gloria
6. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: First Alleluia Verse
7. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Second Alleluia Verse
8. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Veni Sancte Spiritus
9. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Credo
10. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Sanctus
11. Berliner Messe, for SATB chorus or soloists & organ: Agnus Dei

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15272 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .37 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
Though these pieces are typical of Pärt's style, they seem less bleak than those on previous discs. The Te Deum, while often in a minor tonality and sometimes imposing, has a suitable extroverted quality; the Magnificat, with its hushed intensity, does seem solemn, but its cadences are striking, typically resolving from a tonal chord to a shimmering major-second dissonance. The Berliner Messe includes not only the Mass ordinary, but also three propers for Pentecost, and displays a range of moods from nervous penitence in the Kyrie to lively good cheer in the Credo to serenity in the Agnus Dei. Best is the sequence "Veni sancte spiritus," sung largely in unison to a haunting 6/8 melody. Tiny Estonia, Pärt's homeland, has provided him with some impressive interpreters. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews

The Mastery of Arvo Part
This is probably the finest disc of Arvo Part's music yet released, distilling his sublime mastery in powerful performances of just four of his recent works. Two of the works bring together voices and orchestra. The eponymous piece, "Te Deum" itself, is the longest and is by turns warm and chilling; Part seems to be projecting a love and fear of God all at once. The use of prepared piano and windharp enriches the intricately-wrought accompaniment, whilst the voices soar through it like stars shining through mist on a winter night. The "Berliner Messe," frequently performed in Chester Cathedral near me, is a similar piece. Accompanied here by strings, it too has moments of joy and serenity interspersed with some of the most haunting harmonic language ever written - the "Agnus Dei" being a prime example.

In addition, each group of performers gets a shot at something alone. The choir performs "Magnificat," definitely one of Part's finest ever choral pieces, with a greater flexibility than on most previous recordings (thus making it more compelling in its own way). This short choral piece is perfectly partnered with "Silhouan's Song" for orchestra, which speaks from the very opening of wintry European landscapes, cold and unforgiving, in which a prayer is made by the lonely soul. It's a pity that this disc has no programme notes (just fancy pictures of the composer and the performers taken during the recording sessions) but the music speaks for itself, especially in the hands of Part's fellow Estonian performers. If you only ever buy one Arvo Part recording, this really should be it.

Miraculous
I concur with Mr. Swinton below that this is probably the best of his ECM New Series releases to date. It is so for me because it contains the single greatest composition of Part's entire repertoire delivered as the greatest performance of any of those compositions, the nearly half-hour long "Te Deum". Whereas most of Arvo Part's music is consumed with the experience of grief and suffering held in almost medieval suspension, Te Deum relates that deep introspective sadness with an emergent, hard-fought-for serenity and it does so with a dramatic momentum that is lacking from most everything else he has written, with a few less potent exceptions. The Berliner Mass contains the same minor/major key trade-offs but serves a purely liturgical, that is, prayerful function. The other two selections have that familiar, grim, meditative quality perfectly suited for private lamentation. But "Te Deum" is the real catharsis here, as it meaningfully contextualizes all of the suffering Part has expressed in many albums in just one, simultaneously timeless and time-bound, choral masterpiece. A hundred auditions (at least) in six years has not diminished its poetic magnificence or its healing impact.

Sacred and Timeless
A truly remarkable album, for despite the fact that these are religious pieces, they transcend all theological, philosophical and social boundaries and testify to music's unique capacity for pure spirituality. Te Deum contains a sublime mix of choral solemnity and orchestral majesty, effortlessly shifting between moments of barely audible intimacy and invigorating crescendos without sounding the least bit contrived or pompous. The melodic and harmonic elements are masterfully counterpoised, providing music that has a special resonance within contemporary culture while retaining a quintessentially timeless quality. This is easily Arvo Pärt's finest album, and the best place to start if you have not yet discovered his unique compositional voice.