Estonian composer Arvo P\u00e4rt<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the most popular living classical composer after John Williams \u2013 is a comforting reminder that integrity still matters. This concert in honour of his 90th birthday by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra focused on five mature masterpieces, offering wonderful performances which made the music\u2019s austere geometry and ritualistic repetitions glow.<\/p>\nP\u00e4rt didn\u2019t achieve enduring popularity by becoming an imitation American minimalist or wannabe film composer. He followed his own vision, though it took years to come into focus. His early works married ear-bending modernism and his Christian faith, a combination which did not please the Soviet cultural commissars. Not until his 40s did P\u00e4rt find his true voice.<\/p>\n
Two of the pieces performed at the Barbican were his well-known hits. The\u00a0Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten<\/em>\u00a0for string orchestra and bells seemed to issue from the skies, descending in gossamer-thin melodic lines in violins which were imitated at progressively slower speeds in the lower strings. One became aware of an inscrutable process unfolding and gaining in power and heft.<\/p>\nThe renowned Estonian composer Arvo P\u00e4rt in Copenhagen in 2008\u00a0Credit: Kristian Juul Pedersen\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Conductor T\u00f5nu Kaljuste controlled the crescendo through to the final immense chord with an unerring hand. He showed a similar sure hand in\u00a0Fratres<\/em>, another aloof process, this time overlaid with rhapsodic solo violin melodies beautifully played by Harry Traksman, and punctuated with iron fatefulness by bass drum and wood blocks.<\/p>\nLess familiar were the three pieces based on sacred texts. In\u00a0L\u2019abb\u00e9 Agathon<\/em>\u00a0soprano Maria Listra told the story of the hermit who responds to a leper\u2019s many requests for help, while the female voices of the choir and the strings provided both a glowing commentary and an architectural frame \u2013 like those medieval paintings where a miracle takes place among serried ranks of angels. Eventually the hermit discovers that the leper was actually an angel in disguise, a tale told by Listra in an ascending phrase which seemed to vanish as it rose. It was the evening\u2019s best moment.<\/p>\nThat feeling of solemn patterns and symmetries framing a story recurred in\u00a0Adam\u2019s Lament<\/em>, which imagines Adam\u2019s grief after he has been expelled from Eden. As in the final piece, the Latin prayer\u00a0Te Deum<\/em>, the small signs of P\u00e4rt\u2019s genius are tucked away in music that at first seems less individual than those well-known pieces.<\/p>\nBut their brilliance was soon revealed, because the performances made those small signs shine out with such lovely clarity \u2013 especially those long-held clashes between neighbouring notes, which in other composers sound tense but in P\u00e4rt\u2019s music feel somehow serene. It was truly an evening of musical miracles, which held us all spellbound.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Look more: The Telegraph<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An evening of spellbinding performances that made the Estonian composer\u2019s music glow Soprano Maria Listra performing at the Barbican Hall in celebration of Arvo P\u00e4rt\u2019s 90th birthday\u00a0Credit: Mark Allan Estonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Barbican The worldwide fame of\u00a0Estonian composer Arvo P\u00e4rt\u00a0\u2013 the most popular living classical composer after John Williams \u2013 is a comforting reminder […]<\/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-23453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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