{"id":14380,"date":"2018-11-14T21:31:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T19:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.epcc.ee\/2018\/11\/all-part-concert-reflects-embrace-of-music-history\/"},"modified":"2018-11-16T09:36:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T07:36:29","slug":"all-part-concert-reflects-embrace-of-music-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epcc.ee\/en\/2018\/11\/all-part-concert-reflects-embrace-of-music-history\/","title":{"rendered":"All-P\u00e4rt Concert Reflects Embrace Of Music History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra performed at\u00a0 New York\u2019s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, then headed for the West Coast while on U.S. tour. (Photo courtesy of St. Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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NEW YORK \u2013Historically informed performance is not a term commonly applied to compositions of the late 20th or 21st\u00a0centuries. But a concert Nov. 12 by the\u00a0Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Tallinn Chamber Orchestra<\/a>\u00a0demonstrated that the music of\u00a0Arvo P\u00e4rt<\/a>\u00a0requires rigorous historical awareness on the performers\u2019 part.<\/p>\n

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Arvo P\u00e4rt, right, conferring with conductor T\u00f5nu Kaljuste. (Estonian World)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The program, part of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series at the\u00a0Church of St. Ignatius Loyola<\/a>, included six works by P\u00e4rt, one of them a U.S. premiere of sorts.\u00a0Prayer<\/em>\u00a0was written as part of a larger choral composition, the 1997\u00a0Kanon Pokajanen<\/em>\u00a0(Canon of Repentence); for this\u00a0five-concert U.S. tour<\/a>, backed by the\u00a0Arvo P\u00e4rt Project<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0Estonia 100<\/a>\u00a0celebration of Estonian independence, P\u00e4rt added string orchestra to the originally a cappella work.<\/p>\n

P\u00e4rt\u2019s\u00a0Berliner Messe<\/em>\u00a0was the centerpiece of the program. Under the baton of founder\u00a0T\u00f5nu Kaljuste<\/a>, the 25-person choir displayed vocal techniques one expects to hear in early-music performances: almost no vibrato, tone production placed in the front of the skull\u2019s \u201cmask,\u201d and intonation that allowed perfect fourths and fifths to sound without beats.<\/p>\n

Nothing could have been more appropriate, given that this Mass borrows heavily from the medieval tradition, not only in its music but also its structure. It comprises the five texts from the Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) plus three Propers texts (two Alleluias and the Veni Sancte Spiritus); each of those texts is afforded a single movement, although the tradition starting in the Baroque was to split each Mass section into multiple sections (think of\u00a0Vivaldi\u2019s\u00a0Gloria<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for an extreme example).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Berliner<\/em>\u00a0Kyrie was a thing of sublime peace, with the high sopranos floating right up to the heavens; the thick, not-quite-triadic chords of the Gloria emphasized fourths instead of thirds. The choir managed long homorhythmic passages with exacting attention to ensemble. The first Alleluia featured two fine soloists from the tenor and bass sections on the verses, answered by chorus and orchestra, on the word \u201cAlelluia,\u201d another nod to medieval practice.<\/p>\n