{"id":23227,"date":"2025-08-02T16:53:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.epcc.ee\/2025\/08\/bbc-proms-arvo-part-at-90\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T10:57:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:57:26","slug":"bbc-proms-arvo-part-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epcc.ee\/en\/2025\/08\/bbc-proms-arvo-part-at-90\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90\u00a0<strong>\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir isn\u2019t exactly a household name but this group of 27 singers holds a trump card.<\/p>\n<p>They have the official blessing of probably the world\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/music\/classical-music\/best-classical-jazz-2025\/\">most-performed, living classical composer<\/a>\u00a0Arvo P\u00e4rt, when it comes to the performance of his rapt and almost uncannily simple choral music. Last night they gave a 75-minute late-night tribute to P\u00e4rt in honour of his 90th\u00a0birthday in the form of eight of his tiny, jewel-like works, interspersed with music by two of P\u00e4rt\u2019s compatriots and two great forebears, Bach and Rachmaninov.<\/p>\n<p>The choir\u2019s director T\u00f5nu Kaljuste clearly takes the view that a bell-like purity of sound and a perfect tonal blend \u2013 combined with an otherworldly quiet that feels restrained even when the volume cautiously swells \u2013 is the way to this music\u2019s heart. It was never less than beautiful, and in those pieces where\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/music\/classical-music\/100-greatest-classical-music-pieces-time\/\">P\u00e4rt\u2019s genius<\/a>\u00a0burns brightest, like the Magnificat, it actually brought tears to the eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, with T\u00f5nu Kaljuste conducting\u00a0Credit: Chris Christodoulou<\/p>\n<p>The word \u201crevelatory\u201d is over-used but it was apt here, because the performances revealed so clearly P\u00e4rt\u2019s ability to make us hear familiar sounds in a new way. For instance, those clashes between adjacent notes \u2013 which in most music betoken tension or anguish \u2013 here became innocent and radiant. In The Deer\u2019s Cry, the pauses between each short invocation (\u201cChrist beneath me, Christ above me&#8230;\u201d) were tiny, but so perfectly placed they felt huge. The final chord of Peace upon you, Jerusalem, had the quiet radiance of distant bells.<\/p>\n<p>These moments were wonderful, but it can\u2019t be denied that a certain monotony crept into the evening. More variety of tone and colour in the performances would certainly have helped, but Kaljuste\u2019s choice of pieces was also partly to blame. As the programme note reminded us, P\u00e4rt isn\u2019t always loftily spiritual; he actually has a sense of humour and can compose vigorously energetic music, as in his comically pedantic genealogy Which was the son of\u2026 But we heard none of that side of P\u00e4rt here.<\/p>\n<p>The variety of the evening came from those other composers. Galina Grigorjeva\u2019s stony yet ecstatic Spring is Coming struck a different, more primitive-seeming sort of \u201cspiritual\u201d tone, garlanded with lovely high notes from Korean-born soprano Yena Choi. Two prayers from Rachmaninov\u2019s Vespers brought a more human yearning for redemption to that huge space, though the choir\u2019s radiantly cool tone lacked the true Russian fervency. The performance which most perfectly combined tender expressivity with tonal perfection was of Bach\u2019s motet Ich lasse dich nicht (I shall not let thee go), discreetly supported by organist Kadri Toomoja.<\/p>\n<p>The real surprise of the evening came from P\u00e4rt\u2019s compatriot Veljo Tormis. His Curse upon Iron is a bitter denunciation of the metal that has facilitated murders and battles from ancient times. Driven by the incessant thunder of a shaman drum played by Kaljuste, the choir hurled their ancient mythical curses against iron in a rapid patter that swelled to a climax before retreating to a sullen murmur. It was riveting, and almost stole the show.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Vt veel: https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/music\/classical-music\/august-best-classical-concerts\/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90\u00a0\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir isn\u2019t exactly a household name but this group of 27 singers holds a trump card. They have the official blessing of probably the world\u2019s\u00a0most-performed, living classical composer\u00a0Arvo P\u00e4rt, when it comes to the performance of his rapt and almost uncannily simple choral music. Last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001017,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90 - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.epcc.ee\/en\/2025\/08\/bbc-proms-arvo-part-at-90\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90 - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BBC Proms, Arvo P\u00e4rt at 90\u00a0\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir isn\u2019t exactly a household name but this group of 27 singers holds a trump card. 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