Arvo Part – Live (CD, Br-Klassik)

Like hardly any other contemporary composer, the Estonian Arvo Pärt (* 1935) succeeded in bringing sacred music back into the consciousness of a larger audience outside of the church service. Because of its meditative character, the return to the simplest musical basic forms, his music opens up a view of essential spiritual moments. To this end, Pärt invented what he himself called the Tintinnabuli style (Latin for little bells) of composing, even before he emigrated from the Soviet Union. He provided a first significant example of this style in 1977 with the cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for bell and string orchestra; And the three great choral works that are presented on the new CD Arvo Pärt: Live by BR Klassik and make up an essential part of this are entirely in this understanding of sound: the seven Magnificat antiphons for mixed choir a cappella, the large-scale oratorio Cecilia, vergine romana for mixed choir and orchestra as well as the vocal work Litany Prayers of St John Chrysostom for Each Hour of the Day and Night for solos, mixed choir and orchestra. The CD is supplemented by the collage on B-A-C-H for strings, oboe, harpsichord and piano, which was created in 1964, before the composer’s aesthetic reorientation.