Customer Reviews

Alina - Arvo Pärt

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It took me a little while to get "into" this CD. This is simplicity to the maximum. I don't like calling this music "minimalism" because that to me insinuates minimal cerebral content. This disc is totally the opposite of that...there's so much to chew on here that its astonishing.

The melody is absolutely gorgeous and almost forces one into instrospection and contemplation. This album is very cleansing for me as I almost wind up in tears every time I put it on. This fills a very import space in music today in my opinion. So much of today's classical music is cacophonous, dissonant, filled with aural "fireworks" or just plain weird (I have no problems with any of those things.) This however, is none of those things. It is calm, simple, beautiful and still. Our world doesn't stand still enough. This isn't sappy or new age (both things which I can't stand) its just simple and good.

The disc does have an odd configuration. "Spiegel Im Spiegel" is on the disc three times. Once with cello & piano and twice with violin & piano. "Fur Alina" a piece for solo piano is on there twice. The program notes are interesting in that "Fur Alina" was actually a several hour improvisation, and Part himself selected two phases from it to insert between the three renditions of "Spiegel Im Spiegel."

This to me, really heightens the difference between the two pieces. I think there a lot of metaphysical overtones with the pieces (i.e. life's phases, etc.) Considering these were some of Part's first works after his self imposed silence, I think Part's new affinity for triads probably makes some allusions to Greek monk St. Gregory Palamas' book "Triads." That is totally my own conjecture, but considering Part's interest in Eastern Christianity it makes sense to me.

Anyway, to make a long story short, get this CD if you are open to silence and space and contemplation. If you are looking for the sweeping majesty of some of Part's other works, it won't be found here.

I have had a hard time coming up with words for this CD. It is probably the most beautiful work of music I own. I am not exaggerating. The tintinnabuli style has an ephemeral feel to which other works only aspire.

I noticed after the third or fourth time listening to it that the silence is as essential to the music; I felt myself reaching for the next note. It's beautiful, simply beautiful.

I think of the movie The Hunger when I hear it, for that movie had piano and cello pieces in it also. The images that one saw in it, that of light and gossamer drapes floating go through my mind when I hear this.

This CD is worth anything one must pay to get it. It truly is a work of genius.

I would urge everyone to own this cd and it will soon own you too, heart and soul. I won't comment on the ad nauseum tintinnabulism or , god forbid , minimalism. The former just does
not apply here ( see Fratres, Festina lente, Summa, Cantus , etc.
--- all wonderful works --- for that). Alina is about as minimalist as , say , Fur Elise or Traumerei. But this is all about Spiegel im Spiegel, neither tinntinabulist nor minimalist, merely pure genius; perhaps the greatest short piece for violin and piano ( two lovers singing) in the 20th C. Heed the title : Mirror in Mirror : you'll be looking back at your yourself looking back and again until mesmerized by one of the most achingly beautiful pieces ever wrought. That is the good news. However none of these three interpretaions is the definitive one. If you like your beauty neat, you will, seek out PROU CD 139. Here Arvo Part is fully realized in all his splendour recorded in a chapel , fittingly, by Baltic musicians with other Baltic Music--- most noteably Schnittke's Violin Sonata #1. If this recording doesn't tear your eyes, you just aren't human. Alina is , yes, wonderful, but for the greatest S. im S reach further. It is worth it indeed !

Arvo Part was born on September 11th, 1935 in Estonia. By his 27th year, he had graduated from the Tallinn Music Conservatory and was already composing conventional cantatas and oratorios. During his early years as a composer, however, he struggled with creative despair and entered two different periods of self-imposed silence. He emerged from this period of reflection, at the age of 41, having discovered a simple, heartfelt compositional method based on the three notes of a musical triad: tintinnabuli (from the Latin, little bells). A short work for piano, "For Alina", was the first piece that introduced this new compositional style to Part's listening public.

Two years later, "Mirror in Mirror" was written, continuing what was to become Part's signature approach to authoring new music. On this ECM compact disc, "Alina", we are offered an extended meditation on these two starkly contemplative compositions. The musical intention here might be to calm listeners and provide a sonic atmosphere of quiet repose. Yet these works of "holy minimalism" may be better suited to reflective states that require a more engaged level of listener attention. It is a music that perhaps finds it's proper home within the zeitgeist of contemporary independent cinema or postmodern dance.

There is undeniable beauty in this recording, along with restrained feelings of sadness as well. One has the sense that this era of Part's music was born only after long periods of a solitary prayer life. That the music's beauty comes from the serenity found within that solitude, while it's sadness might originate in humanity's inadequate response to the dark mysteries of our time.

Part has said, "it is enough when a single note is beautifully played". Each note here, within the five pieces of "Alina", is performed through a spirit of hushed reverence and tender devotional love. This quality of living makes "Alina" easily one of the most accessible wordless recordings by Arvo Part in recent years. For those curious about his music, there is definitely no better place to start listening than with this simple, serene offering.

My copy of "Alina" arrived from Amazon today, here in the high Mexican sierra. Through gratitude for your efficiency, and having avoided the temptation to write yet another intellectual review,I put the CD on the player and lay on my bed looking at the moon and stars pouring light through the soft air. What can I say, having spent so many years with modern classical music? Only the FEELING that this glorious music produces, straight from the enormous soul of its composer. I heard sorrow for all mankind, free of pity...a simple acknowledgement of Part's compassion and how SOUND, through music, interconnects us on the deepest level. Listening to whatever the experts would have me call it, I am reminded that the Elizabethans put the sense of sound at the very top of the great Chain of Being, and that the Virgin Mary was impregnated through the ear where the voice of the divine entered. Arvo Part always captures the hugeness of spirit often lying dormant in mankind, and once again, I felt its presence in my house because of him.
Not a real review, but words can't express the mix of joy and sadness this CD has given me. Only buy it if you're ready for such an awakening. Linda M.

I bought Alina and Litany at the same time sight-unseen. I had downloaded some of Pärt's ever amazing choral works, but being the pianist I am, I was enthused to discover he had written for the piano. Alina is simply captivating. When listening, one loses hold of the tension of everyday life and is caught up in wonder. The notes of "Für Alina" hang suspended in the air like drops of water about to fall into a lake. The pieces communicate a mournful peace that is not reached by any other musical composition. For those who tire of "mass-produced" classical music devoid of emotion, look into Arvo Pärt.

This CD, however, is not for those who find "less" boring. This is not a musical journey for those who require instant gratification. In some, Alina will inspire a metamorphosis. In others, a plethora of questions about how anyone could enjoy such boring music. I beg the latter to mature. Alina, nonetheless, does include repetitions. The five tracks are variations of two pieces. There are no fast notes or hintings of anything Tchaikovsky-ish. The comparison is ridiculous. The repetitions, I argue, add to the beauty and genius of the album. If you want lots of notes, go elsewhere.

In summation, Alina, Pärt's first minimalist CD, differs from his choral works in content but not in perspective. Be prepared for a redefinition of beauty.

You sit in a darkened room looking into a garden. There is no moon.

A single disembodied note sounds, and in the ambient light you see a piano. There is a repeated triad that you think is the opening of Moonlight Sonata, but it's not. It is a simple right-handed exercise, lovely in its repetition, a practiced, careful rhythm.

From a shadow in the drapes, a violin begins a pair of notes, one simple bow stroke, down and up, listening, enjoying its resonance, perfecting its tone.

As if they were unaware of each other, piano and violin continue with parts accidentally overlaid. Long slow notes by the violin are a wistful melody, the finger exercise a cautious metronome.

This is crushingly intimate music. We have stumbled into a sacred moment. When the left hand strikes a lower key, it is as if a third musician has entered the room and with a simple, ominous single note, has taken the percussive role from the right hand. But the right continues and our attention is drawn again to its simple melody. There is that repeating triad. The cycle begins again.

This is Fǖr Alina. It is so lovely, so innocent and so unspoilt, we can only cry upon first hearing. It is unimaginable Pärt did not intend Fǖr Alina to be compared with Fǖr Elise. With this CD, Fǖr Alina, like other elegant simplistes, is poised to be trivialized. Mark my words, the day will come, and soon, when some barbarian will use it in a ring tone. But this is strong music, strong enough to outlast mere popularity. One day it will make you cry again.

Still, I sort of hope no one will buy it.

The miracle of this cd resides in the depth of feeling it evokes through the simplest of means. The quiet, child-like melody offered by the piano, along with the heartbreaking violin and cello demand - surprisingly - that you stop everything and recognise an innocence you may have thought you'd lost long ago. Once again, Part surprises us with his ability to reach courageously into our subconsious and remind us of that which is truly beautiful about ourselves.

I am listening as I write to this impossible, miraculous, tender, joyful, sorrowful music. I love all kinds of music, but I also know when I'm in the presence of truly great music, and this is it. This is music which reaches deep inside you and touches you where are most vulnerable, most authentic, most alive. To me it speaks of what is imperishable in the human soul, in spite of all the cruelties and vicissitudes of life, and of the love of God, which embraces and suffers with all God's creatures. It is alive with faith and speaks that faith to me. Arvo Pärt must be one of the great souls of the age to be able to create art of this stature.

I had purchased this CD for the track Alina - my sister's name is Alina and I was looking at learning this piece. What beauty. It's in this music, not the passion of Chopin or the violence of Prokofiev, that I can express my inner torment, my personal struggles.

As for the Spiegel, for some reason when I listen to the violin on the first track, I cry. Every time. Sometimes uncontrollably. I can't describe the effect this music has on me - that wierd feeling of satisfaction and regret at the same time. When I hear that soaring piano accompaniment and the rising violin, I can reminisce back on my life, good times and bad. It's absolutely sublime.

Life can be wonderful and simple, and this music demonstrates exactly that.