NFM Wrocław Philharmonic / Tõnu Kaljuste ARVO PÄRT The Symphonies

Here are all four of Arvo Pärt’s symphonies, newly recorded with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic under the direction of one of Pärt’s most trusted colleagues, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste. Each of the symphonies, as the great Estonian composer has noted, is a world unto itself. Heard in chronological order, they also tell us much about Pärt’s musical and spiritual odyssey, and the very different ways in which he has exercised his craft. Forty-five years separate his Symphony No. 1 (“Polyphonic”) written in 1963 while he was still a student of Heino Eller, from his Symphony No. 4 (“Los Angeles”) written in 2008, by which time he was the world’s most widely-performed contemporary composer, and one whose now famous “tintinnabuli-style” has become an immediately identifiable artistic signature.

In presenting the works together, Tõnu Kaljuste considers them as “if they were a single grand symphony. I perceive Arvo Pärt’s creations as a biographical narrative, and hope that with the sound of the entirety of the music on this album we can refresh our memory of Pärt’s journey. It began with an entry into the neo-classical and serialist world, moved on with a composition that incorporated the use of collage, continued under the influence of early sacred music and - with the fourth symphony -  arrived at a confession-like music, with a sound world supported by prayer, penitence and suffering.”

 “To study and listen to symphonies is, in essence, to read and comprehend a biography in notes,” writes Wolfang Sandner in his liner essay, going on to trace many of the correspondences between the notes in Pärt’s scores and the changes taking place in the composer’s life.  In 1968, Pärt embarked upon an intense period of study that found him reevaluating Gregorian chant, the Notre Dame school, and Renaissance polyphony. The first signs of this study were felt in the Symphony No. 3 in 1971.

Wolfgang Sandner: “Pärt did not bury his head in the sand of music history in an effort to shut out the present. Like an archaeologist, he explored ancient compositional devices and realised what power can still be drawn from them with the knowledge of our day and a renunciation of all fashionable accessories. Pärt's method has irrevocably become his own personal style of composition. It has given birth to an entire cosmos of masterpieces, from such early instrumental works as Tabula rasa, Fratres, Summa and Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten to the large-scale choral and orchestral works Berliner Messe, Litany, Stabat Mater, Passio and Te Deum to his many pieces of chamber music and a cappella compositions, including the monumental Kanon Pokajanen.” (ECM Records)