Arvo Pärt: De Profundis

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Marx and Lenin probably would not have appreciated the irony, but after decades of Communist repression of religion, the former Soviet bloc is the source of a profound outpouring of explicitly Christian expression. This is manifested in the music of such composers as Henryk Gorecki, a Pole, and Arvo Pärt, an Estonian. Part, a refugee from serialism, here writes in a quasi-minimalist style that he calls "tintinnabuli," a sound that echoes medieval composition. A fan of vocal music ("The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all"), he uses choruses to superb effect. This disc includes some of his best work, including the popular Magnificat, beautifully rendered by the Theatre of Voices under Paul Hillier. --Sarah Bryan Miller

Tracks:

Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten
Summa
The Beatitudes - Stephen Cleobury
Fratres (Version VI) - The London Philharmonic
Festina Lente
Magnificat - Stephen Cleobury
De profundis - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tabula Rasa: Silentium

Customer Reviews:

Old World Sound to Calm the Senses.......2007-01-03

Beautiful, pure, and often heavenly are my select words to describe this CD.

NOT OF THIS WORLD.......2004-08-31

Tabula Rasa: Silentium : This music is not of this world. I worship/pray in silence while driving with this music on with a palm facing the windshield. The haunting, surreal background...the two main violins mournfully cries out aloud...yet so beautiful...my heart cries with them.

Spare brilliance.......2003-01-08

Spending a lot of words describing Pärt's music seems like defeating the purpose. It is transcendent, haunting, solemn, quiet, and all the other things the other reviewers say. I view it, stylistically, as somewhere between the minimalism of Glass et al, and the ambient textures of Steve Roach -- if that description makes any sense. I find myself a little more at home with his instrumental pieces than his choral work, but that's just personal preference.

This is a good first Pärt CD -- then you can move on to other works, especially his Te Deum.

Magnificat: Magnificent!.......2002-08-05

I realize the title of this review is pretty silly, but I had to think of something.
I have always enjoyed classical music, but not nearly as much as other genres... that is until a friend of mine gave me SANCTUARY. I listen to it all the time now. The genius of Arvo Part's music is that although it is quite somber, it is very beautiful. I think that if you don't like classical music now, you will once you listen to Arvo Part. My favourite piece is Magnificat, hence the title.

If you only buy one Pärt CD, buy this one.......2002-02-21

This exquisite recording is an "Arvo Pärt Sampler" that provides a great introduction to this wonderful composer. I bought it because it contains his two best-known short choral works, the Beatitudes and the Magnificat. The performances by the choir of King's College Cambridge are transcendent, as usual; it is very difficult to achieve the serenity of sound needed to communicate Pärt's music, but King's is perfect for it. The instrumental works are samples of Pärt's greatest hits including an especially heart-rending performance of the Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.

Whether or not you enjoy the music of Arvo Pärt is partially a matter of temperament. Pärt is to music what contemplative spirituality is to prayer. To most of us, prayer involves talking to God; but to the contemplative, prayer means listening in receptive silence. Pärt is deeply contemplative, and his music speaks from this inner stillness, suspended in time. If you long for this inner stillness and peace, you will love Pärt; if not, his music will probably bore you. Silence plays an important part in his music. In the words of Arvo Pärt, "The most important things that happen between people who are very close to each other are not stated, are not even possible to express. One doesn't need to and shouldn't say anything." When you listen to Pärt, don't expect action, don't expect something to "happen." Just give yourself to the music and don't "do" anything - let God do it.

Arvo Pärt: De Profundis
Average customer rating:

a great combination, part and hilliard

Beautiful and Profound

Power and Grace

Rich, lovely, unmatched music

Classical music is not dead

Arvo Pärt: De Profundis

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000007FL
Release Date: 1997-03-10

Tracks:

De Profundis (Psalm 129)
Missa Sillabica: Kyrie
Missa Sillabica: Gloria
Missa Sillabica: Credo
Missa Sillabica: Sanctus
Missa Sillabica: Angus Dei
Missa Sillabica: Ite missa est
Solfeggio
'And One Of The Pharisees'
Cantate Domino (Psalm 95)
Summa (Credo)
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Weisheit
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Adonai
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Spross
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Schlussel
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Morgenstern
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Konig
Seven Magnificat Antiphons: O Immanuel
The Beatitudes
Magnificat

Amazon.com

Marx and Lenin probably would not have appreciated the irony, but after decades of Communist repression of religion, the former Soviet bloc is the source of a profound outpouring of explicitly Christian expression. This is manifested in the music of such composers as Henryk Gorecki, a Pole, and Arvo Pärt, an Estonian. Part, a refugee from serialism, here writes in a quasi-minimalist style that he calls "tintinnabuli," a sound that echoes medieval composition. A fan of vocal music ("The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all"), he uses choruses to superb effect. This disc includes some of his best work, including the popular Magnificat, beautifully rendered by the Theatre of Voices under Paul Hillier. --Sarah Bryan Miller

Customer Reviews:

a great combination, part and hilliard.......2004-06-21

i purchased this CD recently and was a bit worried. i enjoy part and hillard, but the length of the pieces was often so short. i really enjoy it when part writes long, epic pieces and the vocal work really explores all types of music.

instead, what i found was a collection of many small gems, each of which combine to form the larger work i was looking for. i'm not particularily religious, but i find the deep spiritualism in part's work to be profound and soothing. this disc is no exception, as part and hillaird explore religion, theology and philosophy through music and voice.

this CD is well arranged and orchestrated, and ranks among the best of any of part's works. i've been leary of hearing part work outside of the ECM new series of recordings, but i'm happy i explored. few pairings work as well as hillaird and part, i'm thankful they share their work.

Beautiful and Profound.......2004-02-06

I picked up this wonderful gem on a whim. As sacristan for my Jesuit university campus ministry, I was looking for good and movintg religious music. This surpasses anything being marketed as "liturgical" music for churches.

Part creates music that is beatiful, moving and profound. It transported me to another world; it is a deeply moving experience. Some of these tracks have already become my favorite works of musical art as well as meditative prayers.

Power and Grace.......2002-01-10

Hillier's Theatre of Voices gives an absolutely wonderful rendering of Pärt's work. The music is amazing, recalling medieval choral music as well as contemporary ideas in musical composition. Pärt manages to touch on a wide range of feeling throughout all of these compositions, conveying emotion while maintaining the kind of austerity of sound found in medieval chant. Ultimately, the CD provides a moving and enjoyable listening experience. I would recommend it to both seasoned fans of choral music and neophytes alike.

Rich, lovely, unmatched music.......2001-07-23

This music is gorgeous, whether you think you like choral music or not.

The first time I heard Arvo Part, I was browsing in a music store and stopped to listen with a pair of crummy headphones. The sounds and tone drew me into another world, one made lovely by the rich and carefully-worked composition of a master.

The recording is perfect. The music is like nothing else I've heard, more deeply-felt and inspiring than anything I'm familiar with. I would not call myself a fan of choruses, but Part's work is extraordinary.

Classical music is not dead.......2000-05-18

For anyone who thought that "classical" music had been killed by atonal dissonance or kidnapped into the absurd esoteria of academic abstraction, I recommend the music of Avro Part. Similar in style to another (some would say 'THE' other) great modern composer Gorecki, the music is heavy and religious in tone and absolutely beautiful. I was an immediate convert to Part's music, and, from what I can tell, I am not alone.

Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe; Magnificat; Summa

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Gorgeous Choral Music by Pärt, Gorgeously Performed

Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe; Magnificat; Summa

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Lamentate

ASIN: B0002TXT5M
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Tracks:

Cantate Domino Canticum Novum
Kyrie
Gloria
Alleluia Verses I & II
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
De Profundis
Summa
The Beatitudes
Magnificat

Album Description

With a number of modern classics already to his name, notably the Symphony No. 3, Tabula Rasa, Fratres and Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, culminating in 1982 with his largest work thus far, the St John Passion, Arvo Pärt has during the past 20 years consolidated his reputation as one of the most significant composers at work today with a sequence of magnificent sacred choral works. The present recording provides an overview of Pärt's mature idiom with works written on either side of the Passion, and in which a gradual expressive openingout and harmonic enrichment of the composer's musical vocabulary can be detected. The Magnificat is perhaps Pärt's most immediately appealing choral work whose alternation of solo and tutti sections imparts a powerful spiritual aura.

Customer Reviews:

Gorgeous Choral Music by Pärt, Gorgeously Performed.......2004-12-02

I will be the first to admit that I have not been a particular fan of the trend in contemporary choral music that partakes rather heavily of ancient methods--music like that of Pärt and John Tavener--and have tended to steer clear of them after a few exposures. I liked Pärt's 'St. John Passion' but felt it went on too long and was just a bit monochrome. I have also not been a big fan of trance music, of which some of this music seems to take part. But for some reason I have really responded positively to this release of choral music by Pärt. Perhaps it is because the performances are so wonderful. The Elora Festival Singers are a group made up of professional singers from Toronto, mostly from, I think, Toronto's well-known Mendelssohn Choir. I have been impressed with other recordings they have made and I suppose that's why I gave this CD a listen. Some, or even perhaps all, of these pieces have been recorded before, some several times, and some by such wonderful groups as the Hilliard Ensemble, the group that first recorded the 'St. John Passion.' Perhaps my positive response also has something to do with the fact that there are several shorter pieces here, pieces that one can easily imagine being performed as part of a church service, rather than an evening long work like the Passion. Amazon has not, as of the date of this review, listed the individual pieces included here. They are:

Cantate Domino Canticum Novum (Psalm 95) (1977, rev. 1996)
Berliner Messe (1990-91, rev. 1992)
De Profundis (1980)
Summa (1977)
The Beatitudes (1990, rev. 1991)
Magnificat (1989)

The largest piece here (23 minutes long) is the seven-movement 'Berliner Messe' which exists in several versions. The one here is for string orchestra and choir. The orchestral accompaniment is very spare (and very lovely) and, as with most of Pärt's choral music, the choir sings a kind of extended Gregorian chant with much unison singing but also with austere choral harmonies that often include added-note triadic chords. The effect is prayerful and serene. The 'Credo' is a rewriting of the earlier 'Summa,' which also appears here as a separate piece. In both the 'Credo' and the earlier 'Summa' there is a medieval-sounding etiolation of Lutheran chorale tunes. The 'Agnus Dei' is particularly haunting.

The setting of the 'Psalm 95' ('O sing unto the Lord a new song') is a simple chant-like setting for four-part chorus and organ with changing harmonies and spare organ accompaniment. 'De Profundis' ('Out of the depths I have called unto Thee') does indeed rise out of the depths, with tenors and basses intoning the main theme; quiet bass drum strokes and a recurring single tubular chime note against a wavering organ ostinato create an incantatory effect. 'The Beatitudes' and 'Magnificat' (the latter possibly the most performed of all of Pärt's choral pieces) are in like vein. The seven-minute 'Magnificat' alternates solo and choral sections and perhaps provides a bit more contrast than others of his works.

Although I have not heard other recordings of these pieces, I cannot praise too highly the limpid, lightly inflected, and reverent singing of the Elora Festival Singers, along with the excellent support of their partners, the Elora Festival Orchestra and organist Jürgen Petrenko, led by their conductor (and Elora founder) Noel Edison. This is music-making at the highest level.

Recommended.

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

After TABULA RASA, the next stop for fans of Part's "holy minimalism"
An excellent recording of sacred music
Pärt on song, yet somehow neglected
An icy wind of delicious sadness
Some gems

Arvo Pärt: Arbos

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Miserere
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Tabula Rasa

ASIN: B0000260TR
Release Date: 2000-01-25

Tracks:

Arbos
An den Wassern zu Babel
Pari Intervallo
De Profundis
Er sang vor langen Jahren
Summa
Arbos
Stabat Mater

Amazon.com essential recording

This CD features some great performances by Pärt specialists of a variety of shorter works. The clamorous Arbos for brass makes a startling opening for those who expect abstracted reverence; the lament, An den Wassern, has a startling ending that builds in intensity and volume only to break off midphrase. The static Pari Intervallo for organ leads into De Profundis, with its sense of slow but unstoppable movement (every note the same length, every measure the same rhythm). Es Sang has an unexpectedly lilting tune for solo alto, punctuated by string exclamations; Summa is a straightforward Pärt-style setting of the Credo. Arbos is repeated (this is oddly satisfying), and the disc closes with a masterpiece, the unbearably sad Stabat Mater for three voices and three strings. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

After TABULA RASA, the next stop for fans of Part's "holy minimalism".......2007-06-22

This ECM disc is an important document of the work of Estonian composer Arvo Part, containing as it does a number of important early pieces from the composer's "tintinnabuli" phase. If the earlier TABULA RASA on the same label is the traditional entry point into this style, ARBOS is where one should head next. And as with all ECM discs, the performers are Part's hand-picked men, giving a definitive sheen to the recordings.

Those who have heard the TABULA RASA disc are familiar with "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten" for bell and strings. That's a mensuration canon, where various instrumental parts play a descending scale in different speeds, but it is peaceful and contemplative. On this disc "Arbos" for 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, and percussion (1977) takes the same form, but with very different instrumentation, a faster tempo, and louder dynamics it obtains a very different sound. Those who think of Part only as a creator of calm moods will be surprised indeed by this piece which turns the basics of tintinnabuli writing towards a troubled, though fairly static, surface. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart conducted by Dennis Russell Davies gives a confident performance.

The other pieces here are performed by the Hilliard Ensemble. "Pari Intervallo" for organ (1976) does with that instrument what "Fur Alina" did with piano, display the sound of tinntinabuli in the simplest possible form. It's notable for being Part's calmest piece for organ; others are somewhat monsters.

The title of "An den Wassern zu Babel" for trombone and chamber orchestra (1986) refers to the well-known psalm, but instead of merely setting the text Part communicates the soul of the Israelites' lament though anguished vocalizations. The a capella "Summa" (1986), on the other hand, sets the Nicene Creed without any emotional edge whatsoever, letting the listener soberly listen to its theological truths, a good counter to, say, the Glagolitic Mass of Janacek.

"De Profundis" for male chorus, percussion & organ (1980) sets Psalm 130. While the chorus and percussion range everywhere through the seven-minute length of the piece, the organ maintains a slow ostinato much like in "Pari Intervallo".

Though Part usually sets Biblical or liturgical texts, "Es sang vor langen Jahren" for counter-tenor or alto with violin & viola (1984) is a setting of a poem by Clemens Brentano talking of a human lover and a nightingale. The music is fairly standard Part, though. Perhaps a little too standard, for I have a hard time enjoying this piece, which doesn't do much to stand out.

"Stabat Mater" (1987) is at 25 minutes the longest piece on the disc, and one of Part's greatest achievements. A setting of the well-known hymn, it consists of alternating sections focusing either on chorus or the violin, here performed by the great Gidon Kremer. The text telling of the Theotokos sorrowfully gazing at Christ on the Cross is, as one can expect, set solemnly indeed, but surprising are the joyful dance-like cadences led by the violin that break in.

While most of the music here is mainstream tintinnabuli, "An den Wassern zu Babel" (1976) is unusual, coming after Part's creative silence but not squaring with his new style. It displays the composer's interest in medieval music, and is closer to his Symphony No. 3 of several years previously than to "Fur Alina" written the same year and the tintinnabuli pieces that have followed.

One regrets that ECM places "Arbos" here twice--the label is infamous for rarely putting together enough material to nicely fill a disc. That and the presence of the frankly dull "Es sang for langen Jahren" causes me to subtract a star. Nonetheless, those who have heard TABULA RASA and want to head deeper into Part's singular soundworld are highly encouraged to check out this disc which, as a fellow reviewer noted, is strangely neglected.

An excellent recording of sacred music.......2007-03-22

This was the first Arvo Pärt recording I ever heard. I think that was around 1993? I heard the Stabat Mater on a long drive from Melbourne to Ballarat, where I was performing in a midday concert of Renaissance and Baroque music as a part of an Arts festival held in that great country city.
I was alone in the car, listening to ABC Classic FM, as always, and I heard all of the Statbat Mater. I was captivated by this poignant, sublime and beautiful music. The three soloists, soprano, countertenor and tenor, sing the music with great style and beauty. The melodic lines seem to be weightless and float through each other in a very graceful way. The work is accompanied by a small group of string instruments.

I bought the recording when I got back to Melbourne and it has been a favourite of mine ever since. I also bought the Hilliard Ensemble's recording of the Pärt St. John Passion, commonly known as the Passio.

Lovers of the music of John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki, who haven't heard any of Pärt's music will be in for a very pleasant surprise.

Pärt on song, yet somehow neglected.......2006-06-09

This disc, one of many ECM recordings of the music of Arvo Pärt, has often seemed to be rather neglected compared to the higher profile Tabula Rasa or Alina (just compare the number of reader reviews of those discs to this one). Yet it's a disc that contains one of the composer's finest works (Stabat Mater) and a collection of shorter pieces that show him to great advantage.

The brass-and-percussion fanfare Arbos is a brief, rapid series of descending scalic melodies overlaid in a canonic structure similar to that of Pärt's justly famous Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (the sound of bells is also prominent in both works). Though much more active on the surface--and louder--than the more famous work, Arbos has the same static overall feel. It is succeeded by An den Wassern zu Babel, a setting for organ and four voices of the Waters of Babylon passage from Psalm 137. Probably the most stylistically complex work on this disc (dating from 1976, it forms a transitional work between the Third Symphony and Pärt's mature minimalism), it is unusually dissonant for the composer, and bears the influence of Sibelus and the liturgical Stravinsky as well as Pärt's love of early music. Though dating from the same year, the organ elegy Pari Intervallo is a much simpler work, slowly rocking between consonances on its serene path.

The next three works all date from the early maturity of Pärt's minimalist style. The gently ritualistic De Profundis layers triadic harmonies in the upper voices over the organ and bass voice, Es sang von langen Jahren restricts development mostly to the alto range (alto singing with the accompaniment of violin and viola), and the four-voice Summa is perhaps one of the most characteristic examples of Pärt's tintinnabular harmonies and slow-moving minimalism.

After a second performance of Arbos, the disc closes with the main focus of the disc, the Stabat Mater for three voices and string trio. This work, written for the 50th anniversary of Alban Berg's death (like another late 20th century masterpiece, Alfred Schnittke's string trio), extends the procedures of the previous works over 25 minutes--adding passages of great dramatic intensity to contrast the more minimalist sections.

Though I am far from an uncritical admirer of Pärt's work, I think this disc is an excellent selection of his music. If ultimately I have returned to the Stabat Mater much more often than the shorter works which precede it, this is as much as tribute to its qualities as to any failings on the part of the other works on the disc.

An icy wind of delicious sadness .......2004-08-17

Arvo Part creates a world where bleakness becomes almost an indulgence, and upon the first hearing of Stabat Mater you'll feel an icy wind of delicious sadness blow over your eager and expectant frown. The solo organ piece Pari Intervallo (which can also be found on the purely organ album Trivium), is a study in restrained and sterile beauty, meaning that the piece (and most of the tintinnabuli pieces) doesn't crash and bellow and forcefully announce its intent, but whispers it in cold hintings. As for myself, I will not hint: buy this album now.

Some gems.......2002-02-10

All of this music was new to me before listening to this disc. I assume the performances are definitive, so the issue is, how attractive is the music itself? To me the winner on this CD is track 4, De Profundis, almost 7 minutes of austere beauty for organ, small choir and remarkably effective percussion (bell and gong). Track 6, the Summa (Credo) is nice, but the music seems to be content to create a somewhat mystical mood, and does not reflect the text (like many mass Credos do). The major work on the disc is track 8, the Stabat Mater, a very austere piece. It has not won me over yet.

Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe; Magnificat; Summa [Hybrid SACD]

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Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe; Magnificat; Summa [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0002TXSZI
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Album Description

Average customer rating:

Huanting sound. Profound expression of faith. Superb recordi

Arvo Pärt: De Profundis [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000CD5EX
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Customer Reviews:

Huanting sound. Profound expression of faith. Superb recordi.......2004-10-07

De Profundis is a beautiful, minimalist, and moving piece of religious music. Pärt gives voice to such intense feelings of longing, hope, and faith. The Theatre of Voices under Hillier performs superbly. This recording is exceptionally well engineered too. The massed choral voices have body and heft. Bravo Harmonia Mundi!

Average customer rating:

A sublime experience
Part fans take note, this is not to be missed

Arvo Pärt: Beatus

Manufacturer: EMI Records [All429]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Arvo Part: Te Deum / Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Arvo Pärt: De Profundis
Arvo Pärt: Da pacem
Pärt: Fratres
Litany

ASIN: B000002SRE
Release Date: 1997-11-11

Tracks:

Statuit Ei Dominus - Kaia Urb/Tiit Kogerman/Christopher Bowers-Broadbent/Ene Salumae
Missa Syllabica: I. Kyrie - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Missa Syllabica: II. Gloria - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Missa Syllabica: III. Credo - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Missa Syllabica: IV. Sanctus - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Missa Syllabica: V. Agnus Dei - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Missa Syllabica: VI. Ite, Missa Est - Kaia Urb/Vilve Hepner/Evelin Saul/Mati Turi/Tiit Kogerman/Aarne Talvik
Beatus Petronius - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: I. O Wesheit - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: II. O Adonai - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: III. O Spross Aus Isais Wurzel - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: IV. O Schlussel Davids - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: V. O Morgenstern - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: VI. O Konig Aller Volker - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: VII. O Immanuel - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste
De Profundis - Christopher Bowers-Broadbent/Tonu Kaljuste
Memento - Kaia Urb/Evelin Saul/Tiit Kogerman
Cantate Domino - Christopher Bowers-Broadbent/Ene Salumae
Solfeggio - Estonian Phil Chm Chor/Tonu Kaljuste

Customer Reviews:

A sublime experience.......2006-01-03

The music of Arvo Part is one of the great consolations of our age. Often described as out of step with the times, his choral compositions display continuity with the great liturgical music of the 16th Century and earlier. Richly-textured, driven by what seems to be an unshakeable faith and commitment, his church music is certainly composed from an ethical standpoint which few these days can share. Yet he is unmistakably of our time, and that is what makes him so wonderful. From the first notes of this wonderful Mass, we are aware that Part is a contemporary, a sufferer, the great soul we never expected to meet.

None of Part's religious music is more beautiful than the Missa Syllabica, and no listener need fear not finding it ravishingly enjoyable. While still a student, one of his teachers said of him that it was as if he had merely to shake his sleeve and notes fell out, and that richly inventive power remains. The increasingly chaotic music of his early career seems to have reflected his inability to deal with ever-receding boundaries, his own overflowing talents, and the sheer number of musical ideas that occurred to him. Though in the second part of his career he seems to have deliberately imposed restrictions on his musical materials, challenging himself to compose with a starkly reduced palette, and in rigorously disciplined formats, he has achieved wonderful things - and this music is among them.

Highly recommended to believer and atheist alike for spiritual consolation.

Part fans take note, this is not to be missed.......2003-02-10

These works for choir and pipe organ are easily some of the most stunning, moving, and emotionally evocative works yet composed by Arvo Part. But be warned, these songs go from pianissimo to fortissimo quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I learned this the hard way trying to listen to track one on headphones in a car. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir once again demonstrates their superiority. I own several Part recordings, and this quite easily ranks with Tabula Rasa as Part's best work.