Arvo Part, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jean-Jacques Kantorow - Summa
STYLE: Classical RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 9071- LABEL: BIS BISCD300834 FORMAT: CD Album
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
Arvo Pärt is responsible for some of the 20th century's most impressive works in the genre of “contemporary classical music”. Here, as part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the BIS label, we have the opportunity to catch up with some key pieces from “Collage Sur BACH” of 1964 to the hauntingly beautiful “Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten” from 1997. However the most significant work is Pärt’s groundbreaking “Tabula Rasa” of 1977. This is the composer’s “clean slate” where he looks back to the music of the Baroque period and reworks it in what has become his defining voice that he calls “tintinnabulation”. There is just over one hour of music in this collection. Some of it is choral in form and all has Pärt’s characteristically spiritual dimension expressed through seemingly simple musical ideas that are, in fact, deeply profound. Credit to Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Tapiola Sinfonietta for doing full justice to these seminal works.
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