Orthodox priests in black robes and conical caps rubbed shoulders with pop stars and actors, including Bj\u00f6rk, Antony Hegarty and Keanu Reeves, at Carnegie Hall on Saturday at a sold-out concert of music by Arvo P\u00e4rt. No other living composer has so fervent a following or such a diverse group of fans. When Mr. P\u00e4rt, bearded, frail and smiling shyly, took a bow at the end of the evening \u2014 this was his first visit to New York in 30 years \u2014 the roar that greeted him seemed unanimous.<\/p>\n
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Robust sound and plaintive whispers: The choir performing Arvo P\u00e4rt\u2019s \u201cKanon Pokajanen\u201d on Monday evening in the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
Music Review: Arvo P\u00e4rt\u2019s \u2018Kanon Pokajanen,\u2019 at the MetJUNE 3, 2014
\nWhat is it about Mr. P\u00e4rt\u2019s quiet, austere compositions that stirs such passions? It\u2019s a question at the heart of the Arvo P\u00e4rt Project at St. Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, which painstakingly prepared a current series of concerts devoted to the composer and panel discussions on the Eastern Orthodox spiritual traditions that feed his music. The focus of Saturday\u2019s concert was the sacred choral works with which this Estonian composer, now 78, has affirmed that faith in recent years. But a meditative quality suffuses even his purely instrumental works.<\/p>\n
The evening opened with two early examples of these from \u201cTabula Rasa,\u201d the 1984 ECM recording that brought Mr. P\u00e4rt international fame: the lightly pulsating \u201cFratres,\u201d in a version for violin, string orchestra and percussion, with Harry Traksmann ably performing the solo part, and the elegiac \u201cCantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.\u201d The Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conducted with authority and grace by Tonu Kaljuste, brought out the clarity of the harmonic progressions in these deceptively simple pieces, as well as the gradual buildup of sonic texture and emotional weight that makes them so riveting.<\/p>\n
The first-rate Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir joined the orchestra for the remainder of the program. Their performance of \u201cAdam\u2019s Lament\u201d was emotionally devastating, traversing expressions of grief, bitter anger and hope. In \u201cSalve Regina,\u201d a celesta joined the choir and string orchestra, adding a touch of radiance to what is otherwise a private, almost reticent affirmation of faith.<\/p>\n
For the Te Deum, the choir divided into three spatially separated groups, and a wind harp and a piano lent atmospheric touches to the orchestration. Mr. P\u00e4rt\u2019s setting of the liturgy is strikingly different from the brilliant Te Deums of previous centuries, in which the glorification of God is confidently expected to reflect back on the performer and patron. Here, reverence is expressed as a gentle, devotional ritual, its methodically layered harmonies resembling the act of applying tiny flakes of gold leaf to a Madonna.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/06\/04\/arts\/music\/diverse-disciples-flock-to-an-arvo-part-tribute.html?_r=0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Orthodox priests in black robes and conical caps rubbed shoulders with pop stars and actors, including Bj\u00f6rk, Antony Hegarty and Keanu Reeves, at Carnegie Hall on Saturday at a sold-out concert of music by Arvo P\u00e4rt. No other living composer has so fervent a following or such a diverse group of fans. When Mr. P\u00e4rt, […]<\/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-6466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6466","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=6466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}