Though some of the
longer items here have been recorded
before, this very nicely packaged and
recorded disc from Black Box gives a
useful overview of Pärt’s choral,
vocal and instrumental work. Anyone
familiar with this composer’s musical
make-up will know what to expect, with
all its strengths and limitations, but
here there are one or two surprises.
Chief among these has
to be the two Piano Sonatinas,
the composer’s official opus 1 and written
when he was still in his twenties. I’ve
always found it fascinating to hear
composers’ student works, before any
‘style’ as we come to know it, takes
hold. Here, you would be very hard pressed
to name Pärt as the composer, such
are the influences. The opening toccata-like
allegro immediately brings Prokofiev
to mind - with Shostakovich lurking
somewhere too - and the harmonic palette
of Hindemith also gets a strong look-in.
They’re lively, very engaging pieces,
and I supposed it’s hardly surprising
to find the young composer influenced
in such a way. We could all name others
from the early-middle 20th
Century. It puts the later music into
proper perspective and, rather like
Ligeti, whose early pieces are so Bartókian,
when the true ‘voice’ emerges we understand
more fully the journey the composer
has undertaken.
The largest work here
is the Stabat Mater, already
excellently recorded by the Hilliards
on ECM and here receiving another dedicated
performance. It comes from 1985 and
underlines the centrality of Pärt’s
Christian faith and influence, from
Renaissance and Medieval vocal style
to his now-famous use of tintinnabulation
and the symbolism of the number 3. Scored
for soprano, countertenor and tenor
with string trio, it is distinguished
by extreme simplicity of utterance and
is almost totally static in harmonic
and melodic movement, such a contrast
to the feverish ‘busy-ness’ of the piano
works. This music, as with other composers
who subscribe to this ‘holy minimalism’,
invites one to share a kind of mystic
experience, one where hypnotic repetition
replaces any conventional musical argument.
You could say you have to be in the
right mood, but if you are, it’s mightily
effective.
The same is true of
possibly the most famous work on the
disc, Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror
in the Mirror), plunged even more into
the public domain by its constant use
in the BBC’s recent and riveting holocaust
documentary ‘Auschwitz’. This piece
has also been recorded before, most
notably by Tasmin Little and Martin
Roscoe in their excellent CFP collection,
but here the performers choose a slightly
quicker tempo, a decision which makes
the work even more powerful. This really
is quintessential Pärt, a distillation
of his life’s work, poignant, simple,
expressive, incantatory and, in every
sense timeless, hence, I would imagine,
the reason it was picked to play as
background to the horrors of man’s inhumanity
to man.
The short pieces for
counter-tenor are also revealing. Es
Sang vor Langen Jahren (She sang
so many years ago) features on the afore-mentioned
ECM disc and together with the later
Burns setting My Heart’s in the Highlands,
display an ambience which, to quote
Paul Riley’s excellent notes ‘reconcile
wide-open grandeur with exquisitely
plotted understatement’.
The performances are
uniformly superb and the recordings,
as mentioned, are also excellent, despite
a variety of venues. Full marks and
a big thank you to Black Box for providing
texts and translations. This is a very
appropriate birthday gift for the composer,
who turns 70 later this year (2005).
Tony Haywood
Stephen De Pledge (piano) 
