Pärt: Adagio (after Mozart)

These days Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is mainly associated with his later works. Born in 1935 he wrote ‘avant-garde’ works at first. In the nineteen seventies he increasingly found his inspiration in medieval religious music, both western and eastern European. This first transpired in his Für Alina for piano. It already has the telling low tempo and (two) layers.

Pärt further extended his so-called tintinnabuli (i.e. bells) style in small-scale pieces like the different versions of Spiegel im Spiegel and Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka. Although this last piece has ‘classical’ features as well.

This CD shows an aspect of Arvo Pärt which is seldomly heard: his small-scale chamber music works. As such this recording is a valuable addition to the material already available on the market.

All three works on this recording are deeply personal and autobiographical. Pärt takes his starting point from the middle section of the F major sonata by nineteen year old Mozart and quietly comments on this movement in a personal reaction to the death of his friend, the great violinist, Oleg Kagan. Schnittke dedicated his piano trio to Alexander Potapov, the Russian neuro-surgeon, who aided his rehabilitation after suffering severe strokes. Vasks dedicates his work to Olivier Messiaen, echoes of a ‘quartet for the end of time’.

Arvo Pärt is a unique voice in contemporary music, which is why Angèle Dubeau feels so strongly about portraying this distinctive composer. Pärt says “The more we are thrown into chaos, the more we have to hold to order.” In a world that all too often lacks balance, music with such buoyant melodies, delightful sonorities, and candid spirituality cannot but itself be a source of inspiration.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is almost exclusively associated with his later works. Born in 1935, his early music was very much ‘avant-garde’ in style. In the 1970s, he increasingly found his inspiration in medieval religious music, both western and eastern European. This first transpired in his Für Alina for piano. It features the telling low tempo and two layer structure which were to become trademarks of his later works. Pärt further extended his so-called tintinnabuli (bell) style in small-scale pieces like the different versions of ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ and ‘Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka’, although this last piece has ‘classical’ features as well. This CD shows an aspect of Arvo Pärt which is seldom heard: his small-scale chamber music works. As such this recording is a valuable addition to the material already available on the market.