Customer Reviews

Orient & Occident

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this music is stylistically enjoyable, some of the tracks are in a very different vein from the more contemplative "tinitannabuli" compositions Pärt has become known for. The title track, in particular, seems to be far removed from his normal modes; it is dissonant and amelodic. Much closer to some of Pärt's earlier work, I think, than I would've expected from a composition written in 2000.

The last four tracks comprise a piece called "Como Cierva Sedienta", a longish choral work very similar to others Pärt has written e.g "Sarah was ninety years old". I found this to be the most enjoyable piece on the CD.

Someone looking for "more of the same" after hearing Pärt's "Fratres" or "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" would be very surprised by these works. I'd suggest that such a person look instead at a disc like "Beatus", "Arbos" or one of the long choral pieces for a better idea of the styles exhibited by this composer.

This is challenging music, alternating between ethereal and dramatic, but ultimately it is music to be appreciated. I certainly do.

While there is a difference between the "Tabula Rasa" type harmonies and the harmonies in these works, there is still a tintinnabuli structure at work. I find these works to be closer stylistically and harmonically to his more recent works than those of his earlier period (certainly there's a lack of twelve tone rows and rubber squeak toys). Arvo Pärt seems to be slightly expanding his harmonic range, but I feel those who enjoyed "Fratres" or any of his larger choral works will enjoy these works well before enjoying his first two symphonies or "Perpetuum Mobile".
These are very gorgeous works, you should not hesitate to add this c.d. to your Pärt collection. All three works share the strengths of their predecessors while expanding some of Pärt's current harmonic boundaries. Arvo Pärt continues to produce strong and powerful work for his Lord.

Arvo Part has become famous for his religiously meditative and atmospheric music. These deceptively sparse compositions create musical structures rather than melodic narratives. They sometimes even require a new way of listening. Beginning in 1977 his compositions primarily utilized a triadic technique known as "tintinnabulation". Pieces such as "Alina", "Fratres", and "Tabula Rasa" resonate with harmonics that exude a deep and longing spirituality.

But previous to 1977, Part was heavily involved in the atonal movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Heavy dissonance, clashing chromaticism, and experimental tonality permeated these early works. The grinding "Collage Sur BACH", from 1964, sounds light years away from 1977's airy "Tabula Rasa". Those who appreciate P'ärt's more ethereal work might recoil at the bold experimentalism prevalent in these compositions.

Which leads to a surprise for listeners of Part's more recent music. He seems to have begun reexploring his roots. The pieces on this CD, as well as "Miserere" and 2002's "Lamentate", contain flashes of brash dissonance and atonality. Part seems to be attempting an integration of his stormy early compostional style with his more delicate post-1977 style.

This CD contains excellent examples of this seemingly new experimentalism. 1984's "Wallfahrtslied/Pilgrim's Song" revels in contrasts. The strings grope, pine, and search for something ineffable. Their melodic structures never really resolve. Suddenly a reticent choir appears and moans Psalm 121. Then the strings reappear with more intensity. Creshendoes reach higher in extent and in volume. The Psalm apparently evoked more questions than answers. Then, following a refrain of this pattern, the strings completely take over and slowly wind down into silence. Whether the piece ends in acceptance or resignation remains a matter of interpretation. Maybe the question merely gets subverted by the continuing process of everyday living, and so fades off. Structually, the piece is infused with a mourning "why?" That Part wrote it for a deceased friend shouldn't come as a surprise. It seems to grapple with unanswerable questions. Elements of Part's early and late periods mingle throughout the song's almost nine minutes. The strings flail, sometimes dissonantly, and the choir maintains a fairly steady late Part tone. Blended together they create something new.

"Orient & Occident" sounds nothing like the tintinnambulatory Part. Two distinct but similar styles merge and compete for hegemony. Sometimes they meld beautifully into one another, but sometimes they butt heads. A contest between quarter tones styles, slides, no slides, and half tone styles ensues. It makes for a very interesting juxtaposition.

The final piece, "Como Cierva Sedienta", puts Psalms 42-43 to music, but this time in Spanish. Its moods fluctuate from streaming explosions to penetrating calm, somewhat similiar to the earlier "Miserere". An all higher range woman's choir provides the vocals, giving the piece an ethereal, ghostly quality even when the pace intensifies. At some thirty minutes, this song occupies the largest part of the disc. And, similar to the other pieces, it only sounds like the 1977 P'ärt to a degree.

Part has obviously expanded and evolved his style in these compositions. He has definitely not stagnated. And though pure tintinnambulation served him for a time, he couldn't stay there forever. On "Orient Occident" he takes this now world famous style and begins to really stretch it into something new without completely abandoning it.

This is a great disc, with a great choir and orchestra, and the music is really cool...but there's only 45 minutes of it...and Pärt's usual choral writing isnt as up to par. In fact its all in unison...But if you are a Pärt fanatic, its a good addition. If you are new to Pärt, I'd get either the "Te Deum," "I Am the True Vine (an especially good one)," "St Matthew's Passion," or anything with the "Missa Syllibica" in it

This is a fantastic recording of three works by the great Estonian composer Arvo Part. A previous reviewer was right to say that these works seem to point to Part's earlier, more dissonant, works; but they also are relevant in comparison to his contemporary (and future?) works. The unison choral writing simultaneously points to early "choral" church music, with a contemplative and reverent quality relating those early works with his own spiritually evocative recent work. The dissonance pointed out is not out of place in Part's music, only set aside for a while to be taken back up with a renewed sensitivity for it's place in his compositional technique.
Also, I just have to remark on an earlier post: If there were only two composers, neither Beethoven nor Part would make the cut. Limited to "Art" music in the Western tradition, Bach would be one, and I'm unsure of the other... it's neither of them, however.

Over the last decade Estonian composer Arvo Part's music has begun to depart from the tranquility and crystalline tones of his "tintinnabuli" style towards a mix of the pure and the "dissonant". This ECM disc marks the first appearance on record of these new pieces, but I found the music fairly uninteresting.

"Como cierva sedienta" for women's choir and orchestra (1998) is by far the largest piece here. A massive five-movement setting of Psalm 42 in the Spanish translation ("As the deer thirsts..."), the piece differs from earlier Part pieces for orchestra and choir ("Misere", "Litany") by supplementing fairly basic choral writing with a new interest in strange orchestral sonorities. Many of the sounds produced here by the instrumentalists will seem strange indeed to those used to Part's "holy minimalism". However, though some of the sounds themselves are fresh, I find much of the work to be meandering, limiting my enjoyment heavily. At least the version for choir and orchestra is much better than that for soprano and orchestra, a concert of which can be seen on the Arvo Part: 24 Preludes for a Fugue DVD.

"Orient & Occident" for string orchestra is even stranger. While "Como cierva sedienta" is, in spite of its new sonorities, an explicitly religious piece as is typical for the Orthodox convert Part, this work for strings brings in Eastern stylings. As hinted by the title, the work contrasts two strands, one traditional Western scales and the other microtonal writing that gives the music a picante feel. While this is for me the most likeable of the three pieces here, ultimately I felt that there was little substance behind the gimmick.

Though "Wallfahrtslied" (Pilgrim Song) for male voices and orchestra was written back in 1984, it fits in better with the two new works than it would with other Part pieces from the 80s. The vocal writing here, Psalm 121, lasts only a couple of minutes, and for most of the piece's nine minutes the music wanders with a mood of uncertainty, confusion, and not a little anxiety. While writing the piece may have been therapeutic for Part--it is dedicated to the memory of a friend--this is certainly one of the least remarkable pieces from that period.

Though it's nice to see Part diversifying, as tintinnabuli could certainly get stale, these transitional works are uneven to say the least. If you are a total Part newbie, get Tabula Rasa, while if you want to check out his current line of work, Lamentate is better. ORIENT OCCIDENT can be left to those building a full Part collection.

Arvo Pärt is enjoying a growing popularity among a wide variety of music lovers and this very heterogeneous group of works makes that understandable. For those who relish the near motionless meditative works best known to his audiences the Wallfahrtslied (Pilgrim's Song) for men's choir & string orchestra will be immediately recognized. The choral aspect is the usual Pärt near-monotone line for the voice, the meditative spirit that weaves its way throughout this lovely piece, an elegy or even requiem of sorts for a deceased friend. The male choral line seems to be intoning the longing Psalm while the orchestra offers the consolation of nature to the mourner. It works very well.

The title piece for this well-recorded CD , Orient and Occident, is written for string orchestra alone and shows Pärt's ability to stretch melodies over a rather narrow spectrum of space while never sacrificing the richness of the melodic line. It will take more than a few listenings to separate the Eastern and Western suggestions which seem to be present. The final work on this release is another 'premiere recording' of an extended work for full orchestra, women's chorus, soprano soloist and sounds less like a new work by Arvo Pärt than the others. There is far more coloration of the score, more incidental excursions into new areas for the composer, and more demands on the vocal parts, especially that of the soloist Helena Olsson. It is a profoundly religious work that seems to embrace all religions. As in all these works the accomplished performances are by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tonu Kaljuste. It is an amazing journey! Grady Harp, July 10

If you examine the figures on a Greek vase, you will notice an interesting effect. The figures, for instance, runners, will vary slightly from each other, giving an impression of motion. Identical figures would be static and artificial, while too much variation would result in simply a collection of unrelated runners in different poses. "Orient & Occident" is the musical equivalent of this technique, giving the impression of forward movement in what is essentially a static form without conventional development. At the same time, some notes have the uncanny quality of sounding as if they are being played on Asian instruments -- altogether a remarkable and memorable piece.

The music contained in this disc is not *exactly* what one would expect from Arvo Part, in the sense that is diverges only slightly from his familiar style. Yet, it is Arvo Part at its best. I'm not a musicologist, but I feel that Como Sierva Sedienta is one of his most important works ever. It is a piece of awesome beauty and power for female chorus and orchestra based on the 42nd and 43rd psalms. Words cannot begin to describe it.

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Altero, multiforme, sublime. Orient Occident conferma Arvo Part tra le schiere elette dei maggiori compositori del nostro tempo. Grazie al sorprendente "Como cerva sedentia", costruito attorno ad un sofferto salmo di Davide ("My tears have been my meat day and night / Why they continually say unto me / "Where is thy God?") e cantato dallo "straordinario coro di Radio Svezia" (inevitabile citazione del professor Susani). Un viaggio avventuroso tra scoscesi pendii di voci femminili, fulmini d'ottone e strettissimi quanto inattesi passaggi d'arpa.

Arthur Cravan