Alpha to Release Album for Pärt’s 90th Birthday

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was born on September 11, 1935, meaning that he has now made it to the age of 90 years old. It would probably be fair to say that he first came to public attention when ECM New Series released its first album devoted entirely to his compositions, Tabula Rasa. The album title was also the title of the last of the four works on the album. This was preceded by two different versions of “Fratres,” one for violin and piano (Gidon Kremer and Keith Jarrett) and one for twelve cellos, and the “Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten” for string orchestra and bell (note the singular).

The latest album devoted entirely to Pärt’s music will be released one week from today by Alpha. The title of the album is Credo; and, as is usually the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders. There are ten selections on the album, two of which revisit “Fratres” and “Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten,” respectively. The Estonian Festival Orchestra is conducted by Paavo Järvi. Nine of the ten tracks are instrumental, the one exception begin a setting of the “Credo” bringing together the Estonian National Male Choir, the Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, and the Ellerhein Alumni Choir.

First page of “Silhouette” (from the Web page for this composition)

The sixth of the ten tracks on this new album is a world premiere recording. “Silhouette” is dedicated to both Järvi and the Orchestre de Paris. Appropriately for the “French context,” this piece was given the title “hommage à Gustave Eiffel.” According to the Web page for this piece, Pärt was inspired by a “splendid book of illustrations of the plans and blueprints for the [Eiffel] tower.” I must confess that, after having listened to this track several times, I have yet to see the connection; but over the course of many years of listening to Pärt’s music, I know better than to try to second-guess him!

As far as I am concerned, all that matters is that I was struck by Järvi’s ability to establish the different rhetorical stances that run through this entire album, making it clear to the attentive listener that there is more to those ten tracks than “one thing after another!”