The Sound Of Arvo Part

He’s considered the contemporary composer par excellence, a cult figure of the avant-garde, a man who redefined musical modernism. Even those who wrinkle their nose at classical music are hypnotised by the tension of his music and held spellbound by its mysterious spirituality. On 11 September the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt will turn 80 years old. To honour this occasion Warner Classics are combining three albums with internationally acclaimed recordings to create the beautifully presented collection The Sound of Arvo Pärt. The performers are top-quality artists from Pärt’s native Estonia, above all the conductors Paavo Järvi and Tõnu Kaljuste, who present uniquely authentic readings. The repertoire on the three albums covers the most famous of Pärt’s orchestral works: Fratres (perhaps his most famous piece), Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, the first three symphonies and Summa. The second point of focus falls on his choral music, and thus on the sacred component to which Pärt, with his spiritual leanings, attaches immense importance: the fabled prizewinning Estonian Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste performs the Missa syllabica, the Magnificat Antiphonen and De Profundis. Also included are Pärt’s celebrated, hypnotic Spiegel im Spiegel for violin and piano. Together, the three albums form a fascinating portrait of a composer who had to wrest his personal style from the culture-political reprisals of the Soviet Union. After meeting government regulations in his early works, Pärt went into inner emigration with his studies of music of the past before relocating to the West in 1980.

Price: $19.98