![]() Tintinnabulation is the literal and metaphorical sounds of bells. The word come from Latin for little bells. Much of his music since 1977 is based on the concept of tintinnabulation. There is a depth to his music that defies explanation. ![]() While superficially very simple in structure, you come away from a performance profoundly moved. And yet he achieves a lot with very little. His silences are as expressive as his sounds. He explore simple patterns, almost mathematical progressions. He often dispense with melody and common harmony. While he term is not quite accurate, all three explore spiritual themes, (they were quite independent in their development) and their music has a common serenity.Īrvo Pärt's is probably the most unique. Pärt's music, along with that of the Polish Henryk Gorecki and the English John Taverner has become known as holy minimalism. Almost all of his music is based on some spiritual idea. In that year he wrote the three works that made him famous in the West, the three works that are still regarded as his best, and the three works that appear on this week's CD Fratres, Cantus for Benjamin Britten and Tabula Rasa.Īrvo Pärt is deeply religious, a follower of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith. In 1977, he wrote a trio of works that were to define his own style, and set his future course of composition. His early works show the experimentation of youth - there is the influence of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and the twelve-tone style of Schoenberg. He has composed music since the 1950's, music which in Soviet-controlled country was alternately praised or banned, but was completely unknown in the West until the 1980's. He has defined a new style, an entirely new music.Īrvo Pärt was born in Estonia in 1935. His music is very different to anything else ever written. In the music of Arvo Pärt, these elements are not important. Music is for entertainment, pleasure, and intellectual stimulation. It is built on melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre. In the Western world, we know that music must have a beginning, a purpose and an end. ![]() That performance, with pianist Guillaume Bellom, has seen a certain amount of viral spread in online media, testimony to the appeal of this fine album for anyone from newcomers to Pärt to those with substantial collections of his music.When you listen to the music of Arvo Pärt, you need to forget everything you thought you knew about music. All the pieces feature the Lausanne orchestra except for the limpid Spiegel im Spiegel, heard here in its original violin-and-piano version. Capuçon cultivates a sparkling hard edge in these passages, and in the duo concerto-like Tabula Rasa, one of the first fruits of Pärt's new tintinnabuli style in the 1970s, the duo passages with second soloist François Sochard appealingly ring with secondary tones. The writing here is not conventionally virtuosic, but it has its challenges for the player, often residing in the instrument's top register for uncomfortable lengths of time. Some of the works feature a solo violin, and in these, Capuçon both plays and conducts. The pieces range in time from the 1970s to the 2000s decade and could meet the need of someone in search of an overview of Pärt's work in the minimalist style. Since assuming the conductorship of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, however, he has stated a desire to pursue new directions, and this collection of Pärt's works certainly fills the bill. Violinist Renaud Capuçon is known best for mainstream French Romantic repertory and not so much for the minimalist Arvo Pärt or other contemporary music.
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