PART A. - CD WORKS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO

Popis - WORKS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO:
Some composers become famous only after their death, others are already recognized while alive. Arvo Pärt, in contrast, belongs to another category: in this year in which he turns 80, he is already a living legend. Countless are the documentaries and films in which his music is used and vast the number of admirers of his work, many of whom scarcely care for new music. Arvo Pärt is generally regarded to be a composer of tranquil religious and meditative music. But this view is too limited. His style is remarkably versatile, and on this CD the many aspects of his work are given free play: the experimental side, the animated, even aggressive side but also the playful and the theatrical facets. The titles on the CD represent a period of almost half a century, from Pärt’s first publications to his later, matured work. Arvo Pärt was born in 1935 in Paide, a small provincial town in central Estonia. He studied at the conservatory of the capital Tallin under Heino Eller, and graduated in 1963. Eller introduced him to atonal music which was then forbidden in the Soviet Union, especially that of Arnold Schönberg. The influence of Schönberg’s music is clearly audible in Pärt’s early work, as well as that of Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. The experimental nature of his work quickly gave rise to critism from the communist regime, which strongly condemned the western influences in his music. This critism became even sharper after the controversial premi?re of Credo in 1968 in which Pärt, living in an officially atheistic nation, openly acknowledged his Christian faith. An injunction against composing and performing was the result, and Pärt became prey to an artistic crisis. A long period of searching and experimentation arose in which Pärt restlessly produced books full of sketches without this leading to a concrete composition. During this spiritual quest the composer became particularly absorbed with medieval religious and Gregorian music. Renaissance polyphony (music with several simultaneous voices) also drew his intense interest. This period of reflection led to a radical change of course. Pärt developed a composition technique which he called the tintinnabular style (tintinnabuli are little bells or chimes). Characteristic thereof is the use of simple triads in combination with traditional music scales, which results in lucid, uncomplicated melodies. In the short work for piano Für Alina from 1976, he uses this technique for the first time. Also in other works on this CD is the style to be found (Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel). Characteristic in this connection is a remark by Pärt himself: “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me.” This element of comfort - in most new music not a primary goal -, the prominent role of silence, the spiritual nature of the music and the above-mentioned simplicity surely explain at least partially the popularity of Pärt’s work. For the performer of his music, this simplicity creates the obligation to present the sparse musical material as naturally, purely and perfectly as possible. Meanwhile the government’s critism of Pärt continued, and an urgent ‘request’ to the composer to leave Estonia led in 1980 to his emigration to the West. Pärt stayed for a time in Vienna, which he exchanged after a year for Berlin. For a number of years now he again lives in Estonia, since 1991 independent, and which these days honours him as a national hero. Ursula Schoch and Marcel Worms have been interested in the music of Pärt for a number of years now. The composer’s approaching 80th birthday (11 September 2015) formed a fiting occasion for recording this CD, on which for the first time Pärt’s complete music for piano solo and that for violin and piano can be heard.