Alina - Arvo Part

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Arvo Pärt's Alina follows a simple-enough formula. Two stark instrumental works from the master of holy minimalism repeat each other, each time slightly different. But the blissful results--quiet, haunting, and thoroughly hypnotizing--meld to create one of classical music's best albums of 2000. It's as intense and sublime as contemporary classical music can be. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com
This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 that ushered in his "tintinnabuli" style, that is, the bell-like, simple, no-notes-wasted method for which he has become beloved and famous. On this CD, pianist Alexander Malter plays it twice, as the second and fourth tracks; each iteration takes almost 11 minutes (Pärt assumed it would be embellished, and he chose this pair for the... read more

Alina - Arvo Part

Tracks:

Spiegel im Spiegel
Fna
Spiegel im Spiegel
Fna
Spiegel im Spiegel

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

Arvo Pärt's Alina follows a simple-enough formula. Two stark instrumental works from the master of holy minimalism repeat each other, each time slightly different. But the blissful results--quiet, haunting, and thoroughly hypnotizing--meld to create one of classical music's best albums of 2000. It's as intense and sublime as contemporary classical music can be. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com

This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 that ushered in his "tintinnabuli" style, that is, the bell-like, simple, no-notes-wasted method for which he has become beloved and famous. On this CD, pianist Alexander Malter plays it twice, as the second and fourth tracks; each iteration takes almost 11 minutes (Pärt assumed it would be embellished, and he chose this pair for the CD). There are minute variations in tempo, emphasis, and rubato from one to the other, but, all that being said, it amounts to 22 minutes of the most beautiful, contemplative music ever performed. Almost equally gentle is Spiegel im Spiegel, played as tracks 1, 3 and 5 and scored for piano and, respectively, violin, cello, and then violin again. The instruments mirror one another (Spiegel is German for mirror), with notes added to the scale with each repetition, and so on. Almost impossible to describe in its loveliness, each of the three sets is beautiful; the cello in track 3 gives it extra mellowness. This is music staggering in its simple complexity and a treat for the ear and heart. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews:

In spite of my limited complaints, something I'm going to give a full recommendation.......2007-04-17

The ECM disc ALINA contains two works by Estonian composer Arvo Part performed by four outstanding musicians under the direction of the man himself.

Arvo Part is best known for the style he embarked upon in the mid-1970s after a long and conspicious silence, leaving behind the serialism and college efforts of his younger days. This style is called "tintinnabuli" by the composer for its bell-like tones, and in the press it has often gained the title "holy minimalism" for its back-to-basics approach and often explicitly Orthodox Christian message.

Well, Part fans will find the music here somewhat different than the standouts of Part's mature style, such as the epic "Passio", stunning "Tabula Rasa", and his liturgical masterpiece "Kanon Pokajanen". The two early tintinnabuli pieces here bear no explict Christian programme, and they are stripped to a scale more bare than even the fairly simple works of the years to come.

"Fur Alina" (1976) was the first effort in tintinnabuli, a two-minute score launching an improvisation that could go on for hours, based on two voices related through triadic harmony and often compared to plainchant. Part selected two selections from it for this disc, and Alexander Malter performs here. There's not much in the way of set rhythm here. Instead the notes of the piano similar come one after another, with the piano's rich array of overtones exploited to the fullest. When the pianist stops, the reverberations of the strings continue to send forth such a strong sound, an effect Part was later to explore in his clever "Cantus" in memory of Benjamin Britten.

"Spiegel im Spiegel" (Mirror in Mirror, 1978) is present here in three different recordings. The first and third are of the arrangement for violin and piano, performed by the duo of Vladimir Spivakov and Sergei Bezrodny. The middle recording is for cello and piano with Dietmar Schwalke performing with Alexander Malter. In this extremely elegant piece, the piano keeps a constant cadence against which the string instrument sweeps. The result hints at something immensely spiritual, like seeing two lovers gaze into each other's eyes. Part was later to shake up this joining of loving voices with the faster-moving "Fratres" piece, arranged for a number of different instruments over the years, but this contemplative early effort has a beautiful clarity.

This is music that offers emotional impact more than telling us something we didn't know before. As a result, it's not good for frequent listening, as one can tire of the threadbare textures. And, I've got to admit, the lack of an explicitly religious programme is worrying, because religious music that cannot communicate a clear orthodoxy and leave no room for differing opinions just ends up undoing itself. However, for commited Part fans--or even people just looking for the ultimate in contemplative music--this is a disc very much worth encountering and taking down from the shelf from time to time. Those looking for more representative Part works, however, would do well to seek out Passio and Tabula Rasa, also on ECM.

Exquisite.......2006-09-30

My partner put me on to this CD. It's the most beautiful music I've ever heard. Deceptively simple, profoundly moving.

What an amazing person this composer must have been...to be able to create something so magical and beautiful - such a gift. Especially nowadays when there seems to be so few truly valuable contributions to the world of music.

Profound simplicity.......2006-08-31

Just like writing a short letter is harder than writing a long letter, so it is with music. I hate 90 percent of "New Age" music a la Steve Halperin because it is lazy composition, as if playing fewer notes and holding them longer or repeating phrases endlessly is enough to create profundity. On the other hand, we have this in its deep, deep simplicity, each note purposeful and so well thought out. For example in Spiegel im Spiegel, at one point in what is a sweet undulating melody are these little staccato high notes that are almost jarring in their abruptness and yet delightful, as if to wake you up and listen. Another composer would have just kept the same flow unalteringly, good, versus inspiring.

Fǖr Alina, a love song........2006-03-15

You sit in a darkened room looking into a garden. There is no moon.

A single disembodied note sounds, and in the ambient light you see a piano. There is a repeated triad that you think is the opening of Moonlight Sonata, but it's not. It is a simple right-handed exercise, lovely in its repetition, a practiced, careful rhythm.

From a shadow in the drapes, a violin begins a pair of notes, one simple bow stroke, down and up, listening, enjoying its resonance, perfecting its tone.

As if they were unaware of each other, piano and violin continue with parts accidentally overlaid. Long slow notes by the violin are a wistful melody, the finger exercise a cautious metronome.

This is crushingly intimate music. We have stumbled into a sacred moment. When the left hand strikes a lower key, it is as if a third musician has entered the room and with a simple, ominous single note, has taken the percussive role from the right hand. But the right continues and our attention is drawn again to its simple melody. There is that repeating triad. The cycle begins again.

This is Fǖr Alina. It is so lovely, so innocent and so unspoilt, we can only cry upon first hearing. It is unimaginable Pärt did not intend Fǖr Alina to be compared with Fǖr Elise. With this CD, Fǖr Alina, like other elegant simplistes, is poised to be trivialized. Mark my words, the day will come, and soon, when some barbarian will use it in a ring tone. But this is strong music, strong enough to outlast mere popularity. One day it will make you cry again.

Still, I sort of hope no one will buy it.

So tragically beautiful........2006-02-11

I had purchased this CD for the track Alina - my sister's name is Alina and I was looking at learning this piece. What beauty. It's in this music, not the passion of Chopin or the violence of Prokofiev, that I can express my inner torment, my personal struggles.

As for the Spiegel, for some reason when I listen to the violin on the first track, I cry. Every time. Sometimes uncontrollably. I can't describe the effect this music has on me - that wierd feeling of satisfaction and regret at the same time. When I hear that soaring piano accompaniment and the rising violin, I can reminisce back on my life, good times and bad. It's absolutely sublime.

Life can be wonderful and simple, and this music demonstrates exactly that.

Average customer rating:

Not the best performances, but still a pretty good collection
A Written and Sound Portrait of One of Our Most Important Composers

Arvo Pärt: A Portrait

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Magnificats | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Passions | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Instructional | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Arvo Pärt - A Tribute
Lamentate
Alina - Arvo Part
Arvo Pärt: Passio
Arvo Part: 24 Preludes for a Fugue

ASIN: B00093O6OY
Release Date: 2005-06-21

Customer Reviews:

Not the best performances, but still a pretty good collection.......2007-04-20

Naxos has never provided the best performances of the music of Arvo Part--the long line of ECM recordings were made under the composer's supervision and thus may be seen as definitive--but the collection ARVO PART: A PORTRAIT is a nice effort indeed. Issued in 2005, the year of the Estonian composer's 70th birthday, this package features selections from nearly his entire career over two discs, in recordings drawn from the Naxos, BIS, and Nimbus labels, and also contains a 78-page booklet with Nick Kimberley's essay "Arvo Part: A Musical Journey".

Arvo Part came to worldwide attention through the minimalistic and overtly spiritual music he began composing in the mid-1970s, but ARVO PART: A Portrait features some music from his early career as well. Part was something of an enfant terrible in the Soviet music world, and in the 1960s he infuriated the socialist realist musical establishment by producing dodecaphonic and collage works through the 1960s. From this era we get the second movement of the Symphony No. 1, the "Collage ueber B-A-C-H", and the cello concerto "Pro et Contra". One does regret, however, that his important piece "Credo", discussed at some length in Kimberley's piece, is not featured here, but perhaps Naxos could not find a recording that could be licensed for inclusion here.

The bulk of the collection, however, is dedicated to Part's "holy minimalism" output, a style which he calls "tintinnabuli" for its bell-like tones. Two selections from his hour-long masterpiece "Passio" are included here, one begin four minutes long and the other twelve. Of the "Berliner Messe" we have the Kyrie and Credo, and the other late pieces here are included full-length.

"Fur Alina", the exceedingly simple piano piece he wrote in 1976, breaking a silence of nearly a decade, is featured here in its scored form in performance by Alexei Lubimov. The ECM recording of this piece is a much longer improvisation by Alexander Malter, so this Naxos collection (or the BIS disc the selection was drawn from) is a good way to hear the piece at its most simple.

Over the last decade or so, Part has began reconciling his tintinnabuli style to the more fiery spirit of his youth. However, none of those pieces, such as "Como cieva sedienta" are represented here, which is regrettable.

While the Naxos performances of Part's music are not the best available, only the Naxos recording of "Tabula Rasa" by the Ulster Orchestra and Takuo Yuasa is outright unlistenable. The rest are acceptable, and this collection makes a more more economical introduction to Part's career than the many full-price ECM discs. And for established Part fans, the included essay by Nick Kimberley is interesting reading, especially when the only other major English-language coverage of Part, Paul Hillier's Arvo Part (Oxford Studies of Composers), is difficult to find.

A Written and Sound Portrait of One of Our Most Important Composers.......2005-07-13

"Contemporary classical music which genuinely touches people is rare, but the rapt, contemplative music of Arvo Pärt communicates readily, and without pandering to the demands of a mass audience." -- Nick Kimberley

"It is enough when a single note is beautifully played." -- Arvo Pärt

These two comments shed light on Arvo Pärt, both the music and the man. An intensely private man who came of age in repressive Stalinist Soviet Estonia but who always maintained his stalwart religious beliefs, against all fashion, and who, though he started out as an avant-gardist, became the prophet of what has been called 'the new simplicity,' Arvo Pärt is perhaps the most beloved composer of classical music in the world. His music is known by people who have almost no interest otherwise in classical music, largely because of the effect it has on even the casual listener, as reflected in Nick Kimberley's comment above. It also has devoted followers among the musical cognoscenti. His piece 'Fratres,' in its myriad forms, is his most widely performed work, but it is probably his ecstatic 'Passio' that has created the most devoted following, particularly following its first recording by the Hilliard Ensemble on the ECM label.

This release has two CDs chockfull of unfailingly beautiful performances of Pärt's music, generally in complete movements taken from releases by Naxos and other labels. Such disparate works as his spare piano piece, 'Für Alina,' movements of his Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, the 'Berliner Messe,' the 'Magnificat,' 'Collage über B-A-C-H,' 'Spiegel im Spiegel,' and 'Triodion,' are represented here. Two versions of 'Fratres' are included, one for cello and piano, the other for percussion and strings. His cello and orchestra work, 'Pro et Contra,' is performed by Frans Helmerson and the Bamberg Symphony under Neeme Järvi. Excerpts from 'Passio' ('Passion According to the Gospel of St. John') from the recording by Antony Pitts, Pärt expert and a composer in his own right, and his choral group Tonus Peregrinus are particularly haunting. Celebrated organist Kevin Bowyer is heard playing Pärt's 'Annum per annum.'

The illuminating accompanying essay, 70 pages long, is by Nick Kimberley, a noted British arts critic. All of this is in a glossy booklet enclosed in a cardboard box, typical of Naxos's classy presentation of both recorded music and booklet notes.

This release is for all those who are already devotees of Pärt's music and for those who are just coming to admire his music. The budget price makes it all the more attractive.

2 CDs TT=164mins

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

The sound of piano and its depth.

Pourquoi je suis si sentimental

Manufacturer: Bis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000016M0
Release Date: 1995-03-28

Tracks:

Musique Triste, Parfois Tragique
Var Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Fur Alina
Jaungada Muzika (Neujahrsmusik)
Nostalgia
I. Allegro Vivavce
II. Moderato
III. Allegretto
IV. Moderato
V. Allegretto
Pourquoi Je Suis Si Sentimental

Customer Reviews:

The sound of piano and its depth........2000-04-26

Interest in unknown Russian modern composers must be deepened by this album.Lubimov plays delicate melody sometimes passionetely , intellectual composed.

Average customer rating:

Music From Behind the Iron Curtain
very nice

Górecki: Solo Piano Works

Manufacturer: Koch Int'l Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Górecki: Miserere
Henryk Górecki: Already It Is Dusk (String Quartet No. 1, Op. 62) (1988) / Quasi una Fantasia (String Quartet No. 2, Op. 64) (1990-91) - Kronos Quartet
Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"
Alina - Arvo Part
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki: Kleines Requiem für Eine Polka (Little Requiem for a Polka), Op. 66 (1993) / Concerto for Harpsichord & String Orchestra, Op. 40 (1980) / Good Night, Op. 63 (1990) - London Sinfonietta

ASIN: B000001SIC
Release Date: 1995-05-23

Tracks:

Fur alina
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: Moderato
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: II
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: III
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: Piu mosso
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: V
Variationen zur gesundung von arinushka: VI
Sonata No. 1: Allegro molto, con fuoco
Sonata No. 1: Grave pesante e corale
Sonata No. 1: Allegro vivace, ma non troppo
Four Preludes: Molto agitato
Four Preludes: Lento-recitativo
Four Preludes: Allegro scherzando
Four Preludes: Molto allegro quasi presto
Twelve Preludes: I
Twelve Preludes: II
Twelve Preludes: III
Twelve Preludes: IV
Twelve Preludes: V
Twelve Preludes: VI
Twelve Preludes: VII
Twelve Preludes: VIII
Twelve Preludes: IX
Twelve Preludes: X
Twelve Preludes: XI
Twelve Preludes: XII
Sonata No. 6: Espressivissimo

Customer Reviews:

Music From Behind the Iron Curtain.......2001-11-20

There is some titular confusion about this CD. And the CD isn't much better at describing its own contents. The cover lists only Gorecki's 1st Piano Sonata and his Four Preludes,and Arvo Pärt's For Alina and Variations for the Convalescence of Arinuschka. Galina Ustvolskaya's Twelve Preludes and Sonata No. 6 only receive mention on the back. That Ustvolskaya gets no cover credit is a real shame, and yet another triumph of marketers over artists; her two works far outshine the Pärt in every respect except simplicity, and take up almost half of the CD.

The Pärt compositions are so slight as to be almost non-existent. Those who know his style will be familiar with his aesthetic, but even they may not be prepared for the extremes to which Pärt pares away everything except the barest sound in For Alina. A simple modal melody is fragmented into tiny groups of notes--two or three at a time. Harmony consists only of the simplest of bass lines, playing tonic or dominant only and in the same rhythm of the melody; all is as soft as possible. The result is quite beautiful, and somewhat reminiscent of a Picasso sketch which elucidates the response, "A child could have done that!" Ah, yes, but they didn't.

The relentless pounding of clusters in Ustvolskaya's Sixth Sonata might well evoke a similar response, although at the opposite extreme, "A child could have done that, but if he did, he'd be punished!" Pärt and Ustvolskaya are worlds away in their artistic result, but an abstract consideration of their technique reveals a predilection for simple rhythms and textures and a concern for sound rather than harmonic progression. Germanic development is seldom an issue for either composer--even in Pärt's Variations he seems to approach the idea with reticence. It is as though the variation allows him repetition, rather than the repetition which allows him variation.

More traditionally based are the remaining compositions: Ustvolskaya's Twelve Preludes, and Gorecki's Sonata No. 1 and Four Preludes. These pieces are all firmly based in the Prokofiev/Shostakovich school--music with its foundation in tonal harmony, but with the techniques of Primitivism and folk music having a profound influence. Gorecki's works will come as a surprise to those who know him only from the Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. These are aggressive, violent pieces at the opposite extreme of that work; rather as if Prokofiev had re-worked Bartok's Allegro Barbaro because it was too gentle. [The CD notes, by Mark Swed, claim that "Gorecki ends his sonata with a pounding resonance that overwhelms any pianistic thunder in Prokofiev..." As much as I like the Gorecki and react to it viscerally, I must strongly disagree. Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, for example, is a truly astonishing work by a fully mature and magnificent composer; Gorecki's is an enthusiastic work by a young and inexperienced composer (although he revised it twice, most recently in 1990) and any resemblance is a credit to Gorecki but not at Prokofiev's expense.]

The performance, by the truly remarkable pianist David Arden, is superb. I must admit to slightly preferring the recording of Ustvolskaya's Sonatas by Markus Hinterhauser on the col legno label (WWE 1CD 20001), which is both more brutal and more reserved at times.

very nice.......2000-05-06

begins with the lovely spaciousness of Part(the only true 'tame' pieces on the cd) and ends with the huge, frantic clusters of Ustvolskaya. and just about everything else in between. the most amazing of all of these pieces is Gorecki's Sonata #1. a thrilling ride, definitely NOT something you could go to sleep to. i know of no other recordings of this sonata, but seeing that Arden gave the US premiere after studying with the guy, i trust his interpretation. i don't recommend this recording to just anyone as some of the music is difficult to swallow, but recommend it highly to people like minimalism with a loud and exciting bite(the two piano sonatas especially). in my mind, a winner

Average customer rating:

Schvartz can warm -up the coldestly conceived music

Haydée Schvartz, piano

Manufacturer: Mode
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000000NYL
Release Date: 1994-04-29

Tracks:

Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Variationen Zur Gesundung Von Arinuschka
Realization: Manuel Juarez
I. Shesha - Shayi Vishnu
II. Varaha - Avatara
III. Rama - Avatara
IV. Krishna - Avatara
Realization: Erik Ona
An Tasten
Realization: Cecilia Villanueva
Brin
Leaf
Realization: Mariano Etkin
Davidsbundlertanze #14
Four Nocturnes For One Piano
Four Nocturnes For One Piano
Four Nocturnes For One Piano
Four Nocturnes For One Piano
One Nocturne For Four Pianos
Realization: Gabriel Valverde
Ek-Stasis
Fur Alina

Customer Reviews:

Schvartz can warm -up the coldestly conceived music.......1999-12-14

Sometimes you buy music for the level of performance only rather than the music. And this is the case here where the music seems to be lots of filler incidental,marginal or just boring. The two short Berio pieces here is an example. Berio had no imagination for the piano, more orchestral and vocal colours, for which few can equal him. Cage's "Perpetual Tango" is simply rhythms given to play based on a Satie tango. And Schvartz nourishes this cold template with life, like putting emotive electrodes to Cage's scribblings. The Scelsi here are powerful pieces conceived as improvisations and later transcribed, but they reflect his interest in Asia, the god Vishnu and the inherent spirtuality. The music is gong-like and clangorous,written in 1953 it was indeed experimental for its time. Scelsi living as a recluse in Rome ignored the Darmstadt tyranny contemporary with this music. The Arvo Part is a wonderfully beautiful, an excursion into simplicity, and evocativness in a few high tones. The subsequent variations seems to fill in emotive spaces that should have been left alone. That is the creative power of Part's music he never overwrites, and knows how to evoke with one breath, one stroke of the pen. The Kagel piece here is a post-minimalist incidental excursion and filler music,Harold Budd was far more advanced in this language,A pity for Kagel is a master at timbre and pure anarchic combustion.