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File under: Contemporary

Arvo Part

Tractus (2LP)

Label: ECM Records, ECM New Series

Format: 2LP

Genre: Compositional

Preorder: Releases April 25th 2025

€59.90
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Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of choir and string orchestra. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resonates, setting a tone for a recording whose character is one of summing up, looking inward, and reconciling with the past. Compositions included are Littlemore Tractus, Greater Antiphons, Cantique des degrés, Sequentia, L’abbé Agathon, These Words… and Veni creator. An evocative reworking of Vater unser for choir, strings and piano concludes this album. 

Details
File under: Contemporary
Cat. number: ECM New Series 2800
Year: 2025
Superb and as well matched to Pärt's music as it could possibly be.Read more

With the occasional exception of John Williams, Arvo Pärt is the most-performed composer of our time, and certain of his works have emerged as favorites performed even in obscure corners of the orchestral and choral worlds. This release, which made classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023, might be overlooked by Pärt listeners, for it contains no Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel, or Magnificat. The works on the program are all less often performed, yet this may be precisely its appeal. All the music here exemplifies Pärt's creativity perfectly, and hearing traits of his music anew in less familiar pieces brings them into fresh relief, so to speak. One of these traits is the fact that Pärt is often writing sacred music whether it is in a choral or instrumental guise. Among the finds here is the set of eight Greater Antiphons, instrumental despite titles taken from sacred texts (and the antiphon texts are even given in the booklet). These receive a marvelous performance from perhaps Pärt's primary champions, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Tõnu Kõrvits, with a metallic string edge that brings out the resonance effects so basic to Pärt's music. Another Pärt trait heard afresh here is the way his music, just as it hangs between instrumental and vocal, draws on both static and narrative elements. He introduces a solo voice only once, in the parable-like L'abbé Agathon (beautifully sung by Maria Listra with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir), but even this work does not depart from his basic meditative language. This release has all the virtues that have made people love Arvo Pärt, even as it defamiliarizes them a bit, and it can be recommended to both longtime Pärt fans and to newcomers. ECM's sound from the Methodist church in Tallinn, it almost goes without saying, is superb and as well matched to Pärt's music as it could possibly be.