Latest news with #ArvoPärt
Telegraph
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Arvo Pärt's big birthday Prom brings tears to the eyes
BBC Proms, Arvo Pärt at 90 ★★★☆☆ The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir isn't exactly a household name but this group of 27 singers holds a trump card. They have the official blessing of probably the world's most-performed, living classical composer Arvo Pärt, 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 Pärt in honour of his 90 th birthday in the form of eight of his tiny, jewel-like works, interspersed with music by two of Pärt's compatriots and two great forebears, Bach and Rachmaninov. The choir's director Tõnu Kaljuste clearly takes the view that a bell-like purity of sound and a perfect tonal blend – combined with an otherworldly quiet that feels restrained even when the volume cautiously swells – is the way to this music's heart. It was never less than beautiful, and in those pieces where Pärt's genius burns brightest, like the Magnificat, it actually brought tears to the eyes. The word 'revelatory' is over-used but it was apt here, because the performances revealed so clearly Pärt's ability to make us hear familiar sounds in a new way. For instance, those clashes between adjacent notes – which in most music betoken tension or anguish – here became innocent and radiant. In The Deer's Cry, the pauses between each short invocation ('Christ beneath me, Christ above me...') were tiny, but so perfectly placed they felt huge. The final chord of Peace upon you, Jerusalem, had the quiet radiance of distant bells. These moments were wonderful, but it can't 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's choice of pieces was also partly to blame. As the programme note reminded us, Pärt isn't 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… But we heard none of that side of Pärt here. The variety of the evening came from those other composers. Galina Grigorjeva's stony yet ecstatic Spring is Coming struck a different, more primitive-seeming sort of 'spiritual' tone, garlanded with lovely high notes from Korean-born soprano Yena Choi. Two prayers from Rachmaninov's Vespers brought a more human yearning for redemption to that huge space, though the choir's radiantly cool tone lacked the true Russian fervency. The performance which most perfectly combined tender expressivity with tonal perfection was of Bach's motet Ich lasse dich nicht (I shall not let thee go), discreetly supported by organist Kadri Toomoja. The real surprise of the evening came from Pärt's 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. Hear every Prom live on BBC Radio and for 30 days thereafter via BBC Sounds. The Proms continue until September 13
The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The god of small things: celebrating Arvo Pärt at 90
In many ways Arvo Pärt and John Williams's music couldn't be further apart. One celebrates simplicity, purity, and draws much of its inspiration from sacred texts; the other captures strong emotions in sweeping orchestral scores. And yet the two men are today's most performed contemporary composers. Bachtrack's annual survey of classical music performed across the world placed Pärt second (John Williams is in the top spot) in 2023 and 2024. In 2022, Pärt was first, Williams second. This year, Pärt might return to No 1 as concert halls and festivals worldwide celebrate his 90th birthday, on 11 September. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pärt has found a way to speak across boundaries of culture, creed and generation. In the world of contemporary classical music, where complexity and empty virtuosity often dominate, Pärt stands apart. His music eschews spectacle in favour of silence, simplicity and spiritual depth. Pärt has outlasted political regimes, artistic fashions and shifting trends in composition, yet his work remains strikingly relevant. In a cultural moment saturated with information and spectacle, Pärt offers something almost universally appealing. As the commentator Alex Ross observed in a 2002 New Yorker article, Pärt has 'put his finger on something almost impossible to put into words, something to do with the power of music to obliterate the rigidities of space and time [and] silence the noise of self, binding the mind to an eternal present.' Pärt's early career unfolded under Soviet rule, which shaped much of his emerging artistic trajectory. Trained at Tallinn Conservatory in Estonia, he began composing in a modernist idiom, experimenting with serialism and collage techniques in the 1960s – often to the dismay of Soviet authorities who sought artistic control over the creative process. Works such as Nekrolog (1960), the first 12-tone piece written in Estonia, and the avant garde Credo (1968), which juxtaposed Bach with a compendium of avant-garde techniques and incorporated overt Christian themes, drew the ire of censors. The banning of Credo marked a pivotal moment: Pärt fell into a period of near-total withdrawal from composition during which he immersed himself in Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and early Orthodox music. And, out of this silence emerged a new voice – a radically simplified and spiritually charged idiom he calls tintinnabuli, derived from the Latin for 'little bells'. This technique, first heard in the three-minute piano piece Für Alina (1976), pairs a melodic voice (often stepwise and chant-like) with a harmonic voice that is limited to the notes of a tonic triad (the first, third and fifth notes of a major or minor scale). Pärt considers the two lines to be a single sound, as in the formula suggested by his wife, Nora: 1+1=1. The effect is ethereal and introspective, at once ancient and modern. Pärt's tintinnabuli is not so much a system, but more of an attitude: a way of stripping music down to its essence in order to open a space for contemplation. In 1980, Pärt left Estonia with his family, first settling in Vienna and later in Berlin. Freed from the strictures of Soviet censorship, he began to compose larger and more overtly sacred works, often using Latin or Church Slavonic texts. Major compositions such as Tabula Rasa (1977), Passio (1982), Te Deum (1984), and Miserere (1989) established him as a unique voice in late 20th-century music. These works exemplify how Pärt fused early sacred music traditions with his minimalist aesthetic to create a form of modern devotional music that speaks to both religious and secular audiences. For Pärt, faith is not a subject – it is the wellspring of his art. 'Some 30 years ago,' he said in a 2007 speech as he accepted an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Freiburg, 'I was in my great desperation ready to ask anyone how a composer ought to write music. I met a street-sweeper who gave me a remarkable reply. 'Oh,' he said, 'the composer would probably need to love each and every sound.' This was a turning point. This self-evident truth completely surprised my soul, which was thirsting for God. From then on, my musical thoughts began to move in an entirely new direction. Nothing was the same any more.' Though often described as a 'holy minimalist' (a term Pärt does not like since he considers it meaningless), his work resists easy categorisation. Unlike the pulsating energy of American minimalists such as Steve Reich or Philip Glass, Pärt's music seeks a state of prayerfulness. 'I have discovered,' he once said, 'that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a moment of silence, comforts me.' There are also secular works inspired by art and architecture. Silhouette (2009), for example, is a short dance-like piece for string orchestra and percussion based on the elegant structural design of the Eiffel Tower, and his quasi-piano concerto, Lamentate (2002) was commissioned by London's Tate Modern and was inspired by the enormous sculpture Marsyas by Anish Kapoor. His influence extends far beyond classical music. Artists such as Björk and Radiohead have cited him as an inspiration. Film-makers such as Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, 2007) and Joss Whedon (Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015) have used his music to underscore moments of existential weight and grace. And, in recent years, cover versions of his music abound. The little piano piece Für Alina, for example, has spawned hundreds of covers from artists as diverse as jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, US ambient musician Rafael Anton Irisarri, and a YouTuber known as 'euwbah' who improvises on the piece using a cross-platform microtonal seaboard patcher (a computer program that allows the use of a keyboard to generate microtonal pitches). Pärt has not composed much in the past decade or so because of his advanced age, but a late-night Prom on 31 July – billed as a birthday tribute – is an opportunity to catch the UK premiere of his most recent work, Für Jan van Eyck (commissioned in 2020 by the city of Ghent to celebrate the restoration of the famous Van Eyck altarpiece) for mixed choir and organ. The programme – performed by acclaimed Pärt interpreters Tõnu Kaljuste and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – also complements his music with short choral works by composers he loves: Bach, Rachmaninov, fellow Estonian composer Veljo Tormis and the Ukrainian composer Galina Grigorjeva. The celebrations continue into the autumn where a series at the Barbican in London includes an interesting take on Pärt's music in a concert on 26 November which is 'refracted' (their term) through the lens of DJ Koreless and composers Sasha Scott and Oilver Coates, pointing again to the esteem for this music felt by other creators. Pärt's popularity has not diluted the intensity of his vision. If anything, it underscores the hunger many feel for what his music offers: a refuge from noise, a space for reflection, a sonic form of grace. 'The author John Updike once said that he tries to work with the same calmness like the craftsmen of the middle ages who decorated the hidden sides of the pews with their carvings, although no one would be able to see them. I try, as much as I can, to live by the same principle,' he said in a rare interview he gave in 2020. In an age of distraction and crisis, Pärt's work invites listeners into an intimate encounter with stillness. It is not escapism, but focused attention – music that opens the soul to something beyond itself. In an age increasingly defined by noise, he offers us silence not as absence, but as invitation. At 90, his music still speaks – softly, clearly, and with unwavering grace, and is always worth a listen. Arvo Pärt at 90 is at the late-night Prom on 31 July; Tabula Rasa is part of the Proms@Bristol Beacon concert on 23 August. The Barbican London's Arvo Pärt at 90 series runs from 3 October to 26 November. Andrew Shenton is a cultural critic and musician based in Boston, MA. He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt.
New York Times
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Carnegie Hall's New Season: What We're Excited to Hear
Carnegie Hall announced its 2025-26 season on Wednesday, with much of it devoted to celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States through a citywide festival featuring genres including jazz, rock, hip-hop, musical theater and classical music. Clive Gillinson, Carnegie's executive and artistic director, said that the festival was meant to showcase 'the sheer breadth and dynamism of America.' 'Whether you look at film, Broadway, jazz or hip-hop, it's all very vivid music-making,' he said. 'It runs across the whole population.' The season will open in October with the conductor Daniel Harding leading the NYO-USA All-Stars, an ensemble affiliated with Carnegie, in works by Bernstein and Stravinsky. That performance will also include Yuja Wang leading Tchaikovsky's grand Piano Concerto No. 1 from the keyboard. The composer Arvo Pärt, who turns 90 in September, will be honored at Carnegie all season, with his friends and collaborators leading performances of his works. Pärt, Gillinson said, 'always has spoken in a language that everybody can engage with.' Carnegie's season — some 170 performances — will also feature the conductor Marin Alsop, the pianist Lang Lang, the vocalist Isabel Leonard and the violinist Maxim Vengerov, who each will organize a series of Perspectives concerts. Here are 12 highlights from the season, chosen by critics for The New York Times. JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ Estonian Festival Orchestra, Oct. 23 What better way to celebrate the 90th birthday year of Arvo Pärt than with some of his music's finest interpreters and compatriots? Paavo Järvi will lead the Estonian Festival Orchestra (whose festival in Parnu, Estonia, is honoring Pärt this summer) in an all-Pärt program that also features the Estonian Philharmonic Choir and starry soloists like Midori and Nico Muhly. The choir returns the next evening for another program of works by Pärt, performed with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. JOSHUA BARONE Philharmonia Orchestra, Oct. 28 Expect sparks to fly when Marin Alsop leads the Philharmonia Orchestra in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, with its eye-popping bursts of instrumental color. In the first half, the elegant pianist Alexandre Kantorow takes on the electric wit of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. In March, Alsop returns to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in more Prokofiev, as well as a new work by John Adams and Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, with Hayato Sumino, the YouTube sensation and audience favorite at the 2021 Chopin Competition. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM Orchestra of St. Luke's, Nov. 6 When the conductor Raphaël Pichon made his New York debut at Carnegie with the Orchestra of St. Luke's last month, he pulled together pieces by Schubert into a fascinating narrative program. Returning with St. Luke's next season, his subject appears to be Beethoven, with a concert including the almighty Ninth Symphony; the great slow movement from the Seventh Symphony, in Friedrich Silcher's unfamiliar choral arrangement; and little-heard selections from Beethoven's incidental music for 'Leonore Prohaska.' ZACHARY WOOLFE Nicolas Altstaedt and Thomas Dunford, Nov. 18 The vibrant lutenist Thomas Dunford and the sweet-toned cellist Nicolas Altstaedt come together in the intimate Weill Recital Hall for a program featuring French Baroque pieces originally written for viola da gamba by Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. Parts of Bach's great cello suites are also on the agenda, as is a melancholy movement from Henri Duparc's 19th-century Cello Sonata. Dunford and Altstaedt also nod to Pärt's composer residency with a transcription of one his most celebrated pieces, 'Spiegel im Spiegel.' ZACHARY WOOLFE Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Dec. 3 Manfred Honeck's directorship of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra must be counted as one of the country's most successful conductor-ensemble collaborations, his thoughtful interpretations of the standard repertory inflaming the players' super-committed virtuosity. They will bring to Carnegie a program that begins with Lera Auerbach's 'Frozen Dreams' and features the pianist Seong-Jin Cho in Rachmaninoff's 'Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini,' before closing with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which they released in 2017 on a refined yet coruscating recording. ZACHARY WOOLFE Igor Levit, Jan. 22 A pianist of dashing perspicacity and muscular technique, Igor Levit likes to double down on challenges. Last March, he regaled Carnegie concertgoers with solo transcriptions of symphonic works by Mahler and Beethoven, and next season he tackles variations, with Beethoven's 'Diabelli' Variations and Frederic Rzewski's 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated.' These pieces, which take off from a throwaway waltz and a Chilean protest song, require the kind of long-breathed concentration that is Levit's forte. OUSSAMA ZAHR Leif Ove Andsnes, Jan. 27 You go to a recital by the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes to be as surprised as you are awed. His dignified virtuosity is a given, and will be a reason to a look forward to Robert Schumann's 'Carnaval' at the end of a program that also includes works less famous but likely more revelatory: selections from Gyorgy Kurtag's 'Jatekok,' Janacek's 'On the Overgrown Path' and Liszt's 'Consolations,' as well as more Schumann and a Bartok Burlesque. JOSHUA BARONE Met Orchestra, Feb. 4 When supervising an early release of his ballet 'Fancy Free,' Leonard Bernstein included a prologue number, 'Big Stuff,' and got Billie Holiday to sing it. You can feel some of that stylistic expansiveness in the programming for this concert, which is part of United in Sound: America at 250. Alongside a suite from Bernstein's ballet and a Barber staple, you'll find William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony' — another piece that takes mutual inspiration from European concert tradition and Black American music. SETH COLTER WALLS Budapest Festival Orchestra, Feb. 6 and 7 Expect the unexpected whenever Ivan Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which he helped found in 1983. The mutual trust and elegant, unshowy music-making of these players is sure to breathe life into what may seem like traditional programming: Arvo Pärt's 'Summa,' Brahms's Symphony No. 2 and the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with the charismatic Maxim Vengorov, on Feb. 6; the bucolic spirituality of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 on Feb. 7. Plus, Fischer always keeps some surprise up his sleeve for the end of the evening. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM Vikingur Olafsson, March 24 The pianist Vikingur Olafsson, a wellspring of thoughtfulness and eloquence, has two visits to Carnegie planned next season. In the spring, he will take on some of the most profound music for piano, Beethoven's final three sonatas. And earlier, on Oct. 29, he will appear with the Philharmonia Orchestra (under its principal conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali) in Brahms's Second Piano Concerto, on a program that also includes Sibelius's Fifth Symphony and the local premiere of a new work by Gabriela Ortiz. JOSHUA BARONE Philadelphia Orchestra, May 29 The symphonic catalog of the composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has only been getting better. The balance between complex rhythmic interplay and memorable melodic writing in his Fourth was particularly enjoyable, so I'm looking forward to the New York premiere of his latest symphony — subtitled 'Liberty' — alongside Beethoven's Seventh and a new work by Julia Wolfe. The Philadelphia Orchestra is well attuned to Marsalis's aesthetic, thanks to its recent recording of his Violin Concerto. SETH COLTER WALLS Lise Davidsen, June 5 In 2023, the incandescent dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen made her New York City recital debut like an opera star: with an aria-heavy solo program at the Metropolitan Opera. In that concert, she and the pianist James Baillieu dipped a toe in Schubert's oeuvre, enlivening some of his best-loved art songs with bighearted, lovingly limned renditions. Now, in the manner of a lieder singer, she will join Baillieu for an entire program of this composer's output. OUSSAMA ZAHR
