Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
…Lente
Stabat Mater (1985/2008)
Festina lente (1986/1990)
Trisagion (1992/1994)
Silouan’s Song (1991)
Berliner Messe (1990/1991/2002)
Marie Roos (soprano), Danila Frantou (countertenor), Toomas Tohert (tenor)
Estonian Philharmonic Choir
Concerto Copenhagen/Tõnu Kaljuste
rec. 2024, Niguliste Museum (St Nicholas’ Church), Tallinn, Estonia
Berlin Classics 0303739BC [74]
The unique selling point of this new recording is the deployment of period instruments for a recital of Arvo Pärt’s music, and it’s true that the highly accomplished Concerto Copenhagen do bring an interesting new dimension. But what made an equal impression on me was the wonderful singing of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir on the two choral pieces on the disc. They are luminous, disciplined and highly responsive.
Pärt’s Stabat Mater was arguably one of the breakthrough pieces which gave him prominence as a composer when included on the 1987 ECM album Arbos (ECM 1325). Superbly performed in its original scoring for vocal and string trios the piece made a stunning impact. This was in part thanks to Pärt’s Tintinnabuli style – essentially a triad followed closely by a diatonic cluster which instantly evokes the sound of bells – and also in the slowness of his unmodulated harmonic progression, which with the spare nature of the scoring, gives an eerie feeling of stillness and suspension. The version on this new recording is the one premiered in Vienna in 2008, where the instrumental lines of the string trio are expanded to five parts within a string orchestra, and the three vocal lines given to a chorus. Inevitably, this changes the character of the music to some extent. Even with the relatively spare and simple string writing, the larger forces can make the piece sound portentous and there is a danger of a density of texture creeping in. Tõnu Kaljuste, the conductor on this recording, when working previously with modern instruments writes that he had tried to avoid this effect by proscribing vibrato and any hint of a ‘romantic’ approach. I infer his turning to period instruments indicates that he still wasn’t completely satisfied with his previous attempts and certainly the instrumental playing on the new disc is beautifully transparent. It’s also slightly disconcerting at times given Pärt’s harmonic style is so close to the language of the past and one’s ears associate that baroque string sound with the appropriate era in musical history. Even though one knows the piece, it’s easy for a moment at times to think the music dates from another time. I don’t mean this as a criticism of course, it’s a genuinely fascinating perspective. What I’ve said about the increased instrumental forces and texture in theory could apply to a choir of twenty six, which is what we have here, but the absolutely excellent Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir have a super-precise dynamic capability and perfectly blended timbre. Soloists step forward to take some of the passages to good dramatic effect. They are first-class, but unfortunately not named in the booklet notes.
The effect of Kaljuste’s decision to use the period instruments of Concerto Copenhagen is similar in the Berliner Messe. The ensemble play with meticulous care for dynamics and can summon considerable force and attack when needed. The ‘baroque effect’ here is even more marked, one has fleeting glimpses of both JS and CPE Bach. At other times it’s as if instrumental parts have been added to Renaissance polyphony. What is crucial in avoiding an inappropriate over-monumentality is again the Choir, who bring a tone both scintillating and radiant to the score as well as an awed awareness of the theological implications of what they are singing about, despite the thousands of times they must have sung these words in other settings. Overall I prefer this reading to Kaljuste’s earlier one on ECM (1505) with a modern orchestra and the same choir. As well as baroque strings this newcomer has a preferable recorded sound I think: the performers feel less distant and there’s an added and appealing lustrousness.
The one issue I haven’t touched on in both pieces is baroque pitch. Kaljuste writes that its use ‘gives the vocal parts, a richer, deeper and more beautiful colour’. I’m not sure that the music as originally conceived needs it however. At concert pitch the qualities Kaljuste refers to are already very much present and just occasionally I miss the shattering effect that Pärt’s higher writing possesses. The famous opening high A in the soprano part at the very first vocal entry in the Stabat Mater is a prime example. It simply doesn’t carry quite the same effect a semitone lower. Swings and roundabouts though of course and there is no question Kaljuste has overseen a fascinating experiment with fine musicians.
There are three short pieces for string orchestra also on the disc. Festina lente, cleverly devised as a proportional canon, absolutely benefits from the clear period texture Concerto Copenhagen offer, so that one can hear at every point each voice progressing at a different speed, to hypnotic effect. Trisagion, inspired by the opening prayer of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy has a power and fervour to it here, Kaljuste judging the necessary momentum perfectly. Silouan’s Song, is what Pärt calls a ‘musical transcription’ of a text drawn from the writings of Staretz Silouan, a Russian monk from the monastery of St Panteleimon on Mount Athos. It has a marked austerity and the chant like writing is beautifully rendered in this performance.
In a nice touch, Berlin Classics have included not just the texts for the choral pieces but those for Trisagion and Silouan’s Song too. There are also interesting notes from Kaljuste and also Nikolaj de Fine Licht of Concerto Copenhagen. The latter talks of the tendency of baroque players to ‘emphasise dissonance rather than resolution’, another interesting aspect of this worthwhile disc.
Dominic Hartley
Previous review: Dominy Clements (August 2025)
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