News for
Arvo Pärt More at IMDbPro »

2009 | 2008

4 articles from 2009

---

Dog Ears Music: Volume Ninety-One

25 September 2009 10:54 AM, PDT | Huffington Post | See recent Huffington Post news »

Arvo Pärt Experimental classical composer Arvo Pärt was born in Estonia in 1935 and raised in its capital, Tallinn, where the postwar Soviet cloak veiled most outside music. By 14, Arvo was already composing. In 1958, he began nearly a decade of television and film composition for Estonian Radio. Pärt pioneered the Collage Technique, giving the art of sampling its kick-start by injecting snippets of Bach and Tchaikovsky into his pieces. Thumbprint to his sound was also tintinnabulation of the bells. Pärt's artistic well drew from Gregorian chant, Western classical, and polyphony. Accolades include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Music (1996), an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Durham (2003), and the Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2008). Start with the magnificence of "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for Strings and »

- Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin

Permalink | Report a problem

---

After Simplicity, a Partial Return to Complexity

29 April 2009 11:51 PM, PDT | www.culturecatch.com | See recent CultureCatch news »

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tõnu Kaljuste

Arvo Pärt: In Principio

(Ecm New Series)

I have been living with this CD for over two months now, so my reaction here is not hasty. Somebody I work with called it boring, and I wanted to make sure it would stand up to repeated listening. It does. Its lack of flash is not a fault, it’s a virtue; this is noble music that unfolds majestically, but now that unfolding has more layers than it used to.

read more »

- SteveHoltje

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Arvo Pärt: In Principio

17 April 2009 9:29 AM, PDT | Pastemagazine.com | See recent PasteMagazine news »

Pärt continues his sacred investigations with homegrown choir and orchestra

"His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion," Steve Reich once said of his contemporary Arvo Pärt, Estonia's preeminent modern composer.  Pärt’s earlier works were in a neo-classical mold; his later ones imbued minimalism with religious fervor. In Principio, which includes four new pieces and several revised older pieces, naturally falls in the latter camp. Pärt’s gaze penetrates the crease between earth and the heavens: Five compositions are settings of the book of John for chorus and orchestra; one is a requiem for late Estonian president Lennart Georg Meri, and one is for the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The “John” pieces are dominated by celestial voices and string-heavy musical accompaniment that moves fluently between ecstatic fanfare and vanishing solemnity. “Da Pacem Domine” is a standout—its voices flowing in undisturbed serenity »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

The Exceptional Synergy of Ecm and Arvo Pärt

3 March 2009 1:03 PM, PST | www.culturecatch.com | See recent CultureCatch news »

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) has become one of the most popular composers of our time. For a long time he was an obscure figure to all but the most in-the know mavens of the classical avant-garde. Then, 25 years ago, Ecm owner/producer Manfred Eicher found Pärt's music so compelling that he started a classical division, New Series, to put it out (certainly no other labels were rushing to do so at the time). Ecm’s marketing savvy and devoted following have provided Pärt more and hipper exposure than pretty much any classical composer who hasn’t written movie soundtracks or operas. Since 1984, a few other record labels have joined the cause, but Ecm often makes the first recordings of major new Pärt compositions, the exceptions usually being choral pieces receiving their disc premieres under the direction of longtime Pärt boosters Paul Hillier (whose non-ecm work has been released by »

- SteveHoltje

Permalink | Report a problem

---

2009 | 2008

4 articles from 2009

---