(Rakvere Arvo Pärt Festival 2005)


 


The members of the choir are collectively and individually extraordinary musicians. On enquiring who Aarne Talvik, the exceptional bass singer taking the role of “Jesus”was, and about whom no information was given in the programme, I was told that he was a member of the choir and so well-known that no notes on him were necessary… The Evangelist quartet was, of course, not the Hilliard Ensemble, and the alto part no longer taken by a counter-tenor. I missed the colour of the great David James in the quartet, but Danish soprano Else Torp, has a warmth, purity of tone and accuracy of pitch to comfort any soul. And Christopher Bowers-Broadbent coped magnificently with the waywardness of the local organ!