Customer Reviews

Kanon Pokajanen

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Part is a composer who is in some ways the victim of his own success. Because so many respond to his music, it can be fashionable to pick him apart in more "advanced" circles...you can be considered more "in the know" if you disdain Part's kind of minimalism. And Part himself can contribute to this, partly because his style is so circumscribed...like Feldman, Part limits his artistic choices, and like Feldman, the results can get a little predictable.

But then you hear a work like this, where every note seems to come directly out of the composers innermost being, and all my the little kvetches about Part seem like so much stupidity. This is a glorious disc...perhaps Part's most deeply felt work to date. It is monumental, a complete setting of the Orthodox Canon of Repentence...part of the daily devotions of many in the Orthodox Church and written by St. Andrew of Crete, who is responsible for the four day Great Canon with which every Orthodox Church begins Lent.

Massiveness is the operative word in this work. The Canon takes almost a half an hour just to say. In Part's version the work is close to 90 minutes. Formally, the work resembles the choral traditions of Znameny chant, used in Russian Orthodox churches. The sound is austere, mostly sung in block chords...repetative but haunting. Contrast is provided by longer chant-like lines with a strong Greek influence. Overall the work's power comes from it's unity of mood. Listening to it is a meditative experience...you become more and more deeply hooked by the sounds until you begin to understand the true meaning of repentence, not "being sorry" but really examining your life in all it's detail and feeling all of it's contradictions.

This is probably my favorite Part CD. I usually start every Lent with it. It brings me back to my true self...something that I need from time to time.

After hearing Kanon Pokajanen in its entirety on college radio, I immediately ordered the CD. I mainly listen to more contemporary styles of music (rock, hip hop, electronica, etc.) Perhaps I wasn't really paying attention to my car radio, because when I put the disc in my CD player, I was blown away.

I am not religious, but listening to Ode IV is the closest I've ever been to being converted. This ode is my favorite. When listening to it for the first time, I cried. I hadn't cried in about 3 years. I cried for 5 minutes straight, through the latter half of the song. Then, I sat on my bed and stared at the ceiling for a half an hour without thinking of anything. I just kept hearing it. The climax hits you early on; everything beyond that is a come down. A beautiful, more relaxed, yet ever-intense come down.

I find that listening to this album in the background has little effect. Turn it up as loud as you feel comfortable with. I can't really listen to this anymore. I've been happier lately and it's just too much. After hearing 1 second of Ode I, I quickly pressed stop and shuddered, recalling just how intense it really is.

While each ode may seem like the last, you will start to notice differences in each. Besides, I would still give this CD five stars if it were 10 tracks of the same song. Or even just one track.

This is the one artist I will not recommend to my friends. I am 17, and I feel they will not understand. I do not want their reactions to taint it.

In conclusion, if you like choir music at all, purchase this album. All I need now is new friends.

This solemn and intensely spiritual piece with its theme of repentance is my favorite Arvo Part recording. It's exquisite, and similar in feel to traditional Russian Orthodox Church music...the canon is part of the morning service in which one "rises to meet the Light".

The a cappella performance by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir led by Tonu Kaljuste (Part dedicated this piece to them) is stunningly beautiful...the voices seem to float...pianissimos so fine that one could imagine they were coming from another realm.

The slipcased packaging is nice, with a libretto in 4 languages, and the Slavonic written in cyrillic. In its 1 hour and 23 minutes, it never strays from its ethereal mood, and it's a magnificent treasure from the genius of Arvo Part.

A must have to anyone's collection of choral pieces. I first heard this on public radio traveling on the interstate in Montana. I had to stop the car look at the mountains and listen to the deep harmonic passages that jumped out of the score. The voices are bell like and absoutly stunning. A real keeper - also have Part's Te Deum - Kanon Pokajanen is more lyricial and eaiser to listen to.

I also heard this on public radio, in San Francisco, on my car radio; and then sat in the parking lot, listening to the rest of it. It was quite a job tracking it down, but worth it. It's music you will never forget -- lyrical, haunting, mesmerizing.

I had the pleasure of hearing the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir sing this the Kanon Pokajanen in the Toomkirik (the Dome Church)in Tallinn,Estonia. I was so moved by this experience that I bought the CD. Having heard the choir perform in a 13th century cathedral was a experience that I thought would be hard to beat. I was wrong. This CD is so well done that when I listen to it, I am immediately transported to the sanctuary of this marvelous cathedral again. I just bought another to give as a gift.

This arguably is Part's greatest musical operation. Although this piece is referencing penitential and supplicatory worship, the Kanon evokes a sense of some cosmic apocalyptic event, unfolding in the firmament for all of humanity to witness.

Focus on the male voices at the beginning of this spectacular music and you will hear wonderful and unique coalescence of sounds that will take your breath away. Simultaneously, with the opening impact, comes the sorrowful and heartbreaking intentionality of the piece. The only other sacred composition that can surpass the supremacy of the Kanon is Allegri's Miserere...but not by much.

An exquisite recording of a powerful piece. There is an irridescent quality to the voices, which seem as though they filled the recording hall like late afternoon light would fill a cathedral. New to Part's works, I found it a bit intimidating -- it all sounded of one cloth on first listen. With repeated listenings, though, I began to distinguish the marvelous subtlety with with the motifs work together. It has become one of my all-time favorite recordings, and I give it the highest possible recommendation.

I have heard extracts from this cd and was so moved by them I flew to Tallinn, Estonia to hear it (same choir and conductor as this recording) perform in Niguliste church. It was amazing and in common with another younger reviewer I find it so powerful to hear again that although I will buy it (so that I have it) I think listening to it maybe a bit much for me.

The choir is stunning, the music breathtaking, this recording excellent, and Tallinn a lovely place to visit!

It has been said that the human voice is the most beautiful of all instruments. In this 2-CD set, with the help of the 28-voice Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Arvo Part proves it to be once again true. Part sets the Russian Orthodox liturgical song cycle of the Slavonic, KANON POKAJANEN ('canon of repentance') to s-l-o-w, deep, majestically dark vocal harmonies followed by sumptuous elevations into the choral heavens. Mysterious and mesmerizing; cathartic and redemptive; Part brings us to the threshold of our spiritual decision to change our sinful ways, and to begin our journey toward paradise. The canon text is included in the liner notes and provides the contemplation from which Part took his inspiration, and from which we may also take ours.