Customer Reviews

Part: Summa

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

 

 

It's hard to imagine a finer recording of Pärt's orchestral works. The selection of pieces is excellent (and quite extensive), the orchestra is well-balanced and well-blended, and the tempi are chosen with the utmost sensitivity. The damp, cathedralesque ambience of the recording may tend to drain some of the expressive quality out of the strings, but these solemn, mystical works sound very much at home in such an environment. I prefer these recordings even to the famous 'Tabula Rasa' disc on ECM.

Most of these pieces are in Pärt's minimalistic "tinntinnabuli" style, but the 3rd Symphony will be a pleasant surprise to those listeners familiar only with that side of Arvo Pärt's oeuvre. It's a sprawling, full-orchestral setting of archaic polyphony, rich and "cinematic" in the best sense of the word.

I have enjoyed the music of Part for a long time.
Fratres and the Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten are wonderful pieces.
In many ways, I prefer this version of the Cantus over Paavo's father, Neeme.
They are both wonderful performances.
Paavo, in his way, makes this piece more cathartic. The srings are so great.
And, for me, the real find was the Third Symphony. The elements of chant, monastic melody and simplicity were astounding.
Heavenly music!!

I grew up, matured, and developed a career in the seventies and eighties. Living in one of the nicest countries in the western world, relatively free from grief and trauma, I could never have countenanced the gamut of emotions Arvo Part, who was growing and developing in a more troubled part of the world at the same time, was able to impart. In my early sixties, I find his music really does talk about the world and it's tribulations as it moved through the last three decades.

At once elegant, minimalist, stark and incredibly poised, the music of Arvo Part is able to sum up the current human dilemna in an eloquent and relevant manner. I decided to purchase a series of his albums from Amazon in order to round out my collection after hearing his pieces broadcast frequently on ABC FM, our national classical music broadcaster. I am incredibly glad that I did.

The recording is open and transparent. The performance is suitably sensual and measured. Thus, the music as composed is allowed to emerge; and the music is very impassioned and arousing as a result.

................... stunning stuff!

I connect much more with Arvo Part's orchestral works than his choral pieces. Summa is the essential CD for the orchestral works. Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten is my favorite! The best version of Cantus is on the Tabula Rasa CD.

Sublime. Transporting. I leave a succinct review for a piece of work that goes beyond my capacity for descriptive words.

All I can say is that every time I hear it (which is almost every day), I feel as in a strangely magical atmosphere and I awaken from my routine to discover a floating beauty around me.

Arvo Paart always accomplishes that. This rendition is tactfully performed, with one of the most subtle versions of Summa.