Pärt: Tabula Rasa; Fratres; Symphony No. 3
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Composer: Arvo PartConductor: Neeme Järvi
Orchestra: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-09-14
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
- Fratres (For Violin, String Orchestra And Percussion)
- TABULA RASA: 1. Ludus: Con moto
- TABULA RASA: 2. Silentium: Senza moto
- Symphony No. 3: 66 - 104 - attacca:
- Symphony No. 3: 54-56 - Piu mosso - attacca
- Symphony No. 3: 60 (alla breve)
Music reviews of Pärt: Tabula Rasa; Fratres; Symphony No. 3
Music Review: Two pieces in poor performance, but a fine 3rd Symphony
Rating: 3 Stars
This disc in Deutsche Grammaphon's "20/21" series of recordings of contemporary music displays three works of Arvo Part performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi, with a spotlight on violinist Gil Shaham. Part is best known for his minimalistic and Renaissance-inspired "tintinnabuli" style of the 1970s and 1980s, and two of the works here are in that vein, while his 3rd Symphony is a transitional work joining an early interest in serialism with his mature style.
"Fratres" is a piece with numerous--at least 8--variant arrangements. On this disc it is represented first in a 1992 version for violin, percussion, and string orchestra. This is certainly one of the more passionate arrangements (easily winning out over, for example the sluggish one for 12 cellos), and Gil Sharam performs unobjectionable, though Part's music of this period eschews virtuosity and is difficult to do badly on.
"Tabula Rasa" (1977) for two violins, prepared piano, and string orchestra is probably the most instantly likeable piece on this disc. It is divided into two parts, and the first, "Ludus" is an intricate dance marked as to be performed "with movement", and here the two violins repeat the same theme over and over while true development is handled under the surface by a string orchestra. It is followed by "Silentium" ("Silence"), the meditative flip-side to be performed with as little movement as possible. Sharam is joined here by former classmate Adele Anthony. This was the first recording I heard of the piece, and I marvelled at the beauty of Part's composition, I later came to find that it does not hold up very well against other performances. Shaham says in the notes that he understands the piece is about loneliness and barrenness, but his performance is like sugar-sweet Romanticism. Furthermore, Jarvi drives it too quickly and on this recording the prepared piano (played by Erik Risberg), such an important part of the piece, is often hardly audible here. The performance on the TABULA RASA disc on ECM by Gidon Kremer and Tatjana Grindenko (violins) and Alfred Schnittke (prepared piano) can be seen as definitive and it is that performance which should be sought out by anyone curious about "Tabula Rasa".
"Symphony No. 3" (1971) is generally seen to be a transitional work falling between serialism and minimalism. I perceive it to be more akin to his early works, and the connection to pieces like "Collage Uber B-A-C-H" is, I should think, quite apparent. The bell sounds, however, are a clear foreshadowing of his later style. This symphony was dedicated to Neeme Jarvi and this performance conducted by the dedicatee is really something nice, certainly better than the inconsistent performance on Naxos by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuasa. This disc is the best place to hear the 3rd Symphony, though I'd recommend hearing Part's works of the 1990s before going back to a much earlier composition like this.
Part is generally seen as a religious composer--most of his output is religiously titled--and the liner notes here make much of the supposed deep sprituality of his work. However, I have always felt that music which so fuzzily nebulously speaks of religion has little efficacy. I prefer the work of Sofia Gubaidulina or Oliver Messiaen, whose strict music always asserts a concrete orthodoxy and leaves no room for differing opinions. This is one reason while I cannot rate the disc so highly as others, for in spite of its technical brilliance, this work is spiritually dead. In the mid-1990's Part began to compose works like "Litany" soundly based on his Eastern Orthodox faith, and this style ultimately culminated with his setting of the massive Kanon Pokajanen penitence text. I would recommend those to fans of Christian work in modern-classical music.
If you are interested in the work of Arvo Part, this pieces on this work may be a good place to start, even if they are religiously hollow and in a style perhaps historically superseded. Still, you'd want to seek out better performances of "Tabula Rasa" and "Fratres", such as the TABULA RASA disc on ECM. However, an even better introduction to Part, with music that has a better chance of standing the test of time, might be his KANON POKAJANEN.
Description of Pärt: Tabula Rasa; Fratres; Symphony No. 3
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.DG's beautifully packaged and produced 20/21 series here pays homage to Arvo Pärt, presenting a new interpretation of two of his most familiar works--already indisputable classics--Tabula Rasa and Fratres. For all of their "minimalist" technique, there's a fathomless--call it timeless, if you will--beauty to these scores the deeper you plunge into their hypnotic sound world. The best place to discover them remains ECM's breakthrough release Tabula Rasa. Unlike Gidon Kremer (the superb interpreter of that recording), and despite an epiphany he mentions in the booklet--likening this music to the desert landscape of Utah--Gil Shaham doesn't seem to grasp one of the key components of that beauty: its austerity, its distance, as through a glass. There's an exquisite finish to his tone, to be sure, but Shaham essentially overromanticizes this music, coating it with a lovely but undifferentiated sheen, although he does hint at the vocal character of his lines. Passages of Fratres thus sound curiously tamed, as if we could be listening to such pastoral blandishments as The Lark Ascending or, in Tabula Rasa, to a Vivaldi andante. Despite this disappointment, the disc offers a thoroughly compelling account of the Third Symphony (1971) by its dedicatee, Neeme Järvi. It's fascinating to hear Pärt's points of origin--Soviet music, chant from the Orthodox Church, the fascination with bell sounds--so clearly delineated and transmogrified as in this work. Järvi molds its colorful but somber scoring into vividly dramatic shapes, hinting at Shostakovich in the chasm-deep bass lines tugging against the piercing treble or--as in the haunting opening solo--at the bleak majesty of a Sibelius landscape. The very success of Pärt's better-known works has tended to obscure the quality of such earlier pieces, but this performance helps widen the perspective to a more inclusive one. --Thomas May
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