{"id":14424,"date":"2018-11-13T12:29:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T10:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/?p=14424"},"modified":"2018-11-23T12:31:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T10:31:15","slug":"somber-arvo-part-choral-and-orchestral-music-for-somber-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/2018\/11\/somber-arvo-part-choral-and-orchestral-music-for-somber-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Somber Arvo Part Choral and Orchestral Music for Somber Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether Russian orchestras actually play Shostakovich better, or French organists are best suited to perform the work of Louis Vierne, are debatable questions. What was indisputable last night was how vastly attuned the\u00a0Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tallinn Chamber Orchestra<\/a>\u00a0were to their countryman\u00a0Arvo Part<\/a>\u2019s somber, rapturous mysticism. It\u2019s impossible to think of a more apt program for a New York series called\u00a0Sacred Music in a Sacred Space<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The concert was a confluence of unlikely serendipities. Beyond the rare opportunity to witness these two legendary ensembles together on American soil, the material on the bill was what many consider to be peak-era Part. Everything dated from1990 and later, with one of the arrangements a 2018 North American premiere. Better yet, the composer himself had suggested the inclusion of his soberly crescendoing, cell-like 2006 string orchestra piece, Fur Lennart in Memoria.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a macro level, the performance was as meticulously serious as its overall gloom was pervasive and relentless. In particular, conductor Tonu Kaljuste made masterful use of the innumerable spaces that punctuated these works, leting the natural reverb of the high-ceilinged Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola resonate as profoundly as the music itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ensembles only missed the big American costume-party holiday by a couple of weeks. To be fair, the only point where the sound reached fullscale horror was in the stalking pulse, gothic chromatics and brief series of muted, shrieking motives in the concluding suite, Adam\u2019s Lament. The message, here as elsewhere, seemed to be that no human alone should have to bear the burden of being cast out of paradise, all alone in a hostile world.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rest of the program was every bit as troubled and serious. Even celeste player\u00a0Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann<\/a>\u2019s graceful comet-trail phrases and bittersweet starriness tended to simply mingle with the otherwise rather stygian, even creepy tones of Salve Regina. Mysterious bass drones anchored alternately moody and robust accents and call-and-response from the choir throughout an understatedly dynamic take of Part\u2019s Berliner Messe, the oldest piece they performed. The string orchestra brought a gorgeous, Gorecki-like, hypnotically circling ambience to Silouan\u2019s Song, rising to a windswept ethereality. And the Prayer, from Part\u2019s Kanon Pokajanen suite, perfectly synopsized the concert\u2019s slow, steady, spacious majesty, artfully developed variations on simple, emphatic phrases and lustrous contrast between highs and lows from both the singers and the strings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two ensembles are currently on US tour; the next stop is Nov 14 at 7:30 PM at\u00a0Bing Concert Hall<\/a>, 327 Lasuen St. in Stanford, California; you can get in for $32, less if you\u2019re a student. After more lighthearted holiday fare next month, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space\u2019s programming keeps the intensity high with a performance by longtime St. Ignatius organist\u00a0Renee-Anne Louprette<\/a>\u00a0with uilleann piper Ivan Goff on Jan 20 at 3 PM; tix are $25.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
Read more New York Music Daily<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether Russian orchestras actually play Shostakovich better, or French organists are best suited to perform the work of Louis Vierne, are debatable questions. What was indisputable last night was how vastly attuned the\u00a0Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir\u00a0and\u00a0Tallinn Chamber Orchestra\u00a0were to their countryman\u00a0Arvo Part\u2019s somber, rapturous mysticism. It\u2019s impossible to think of a more apt program for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}