Pärt: Fratres
Product Details
Customer Reviews
Mesmerizing
OK, the people who made this album are officially crazy. Nine tracks, and six of them are different arrangements of Fratres! But it's a good crazy. The piece is fascinating and very evocative and draws you in. So, believe it or not, it works.
Once I had it playing while I was working on something else. Fifteen minutes after the CD ended I realized that there was no more music, although in some mysterious and enchanting way I continued to hear it in the air.
Amazingly subtle variety
Arvo Part is one of the only composers (if not the only one) I can think of where a CD containing six versions (albeit with different instrumentation) of the same piece is not boring or pretentious.
In addition to "Fratres" six times, we are treated to three other pieces as well. (I will comment more on them later.)
"Fratres" the obvious centerpiece of this album is a piece that roughly runs about 10 minutes and is incredibly rich in material as to score it for a plethora of different instruments is refreshing instead of frustrating. The various combinations offered here are for: 1. strings & percussion; 2. violin, strings & percussion; 3. wind octet & percussion; 4. eight cellos; 5. string quartet; 6. cello and piano.
I like the producers choice to put versions one and two next to each other (with the only difference being the "solo" violinist.) You can tell how much that one instrument's line really changes up the piece. Additionally that soloist uses a lot of pizzacato and it reinvigorates the piece. The version for wind octet is probably the most bizarre of all. It sounds like it uses strings and an organ. A testament both to Part's writing and the performers skills. The version for eight cellos is quite rich, showing once agains Part's compositional prowess, but also showing the great range of the cello (its my favorite instrument in the western orchestra.) The version for string quartet is the least compelling of bunch in my opinion. Not because Part can't write for quartet, but this piece just calls for more. The version for cello and piano is a nice way to close out the record, its probably my favorite version of all.
In addition to "Fratres" we are treated to "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" which is beautiful...a fitting tribute to a brilliant composer (I'm told Part was quite fond of his music.) If this doesn't bring tears to your eyes...I don't know what will. This piece (more than "Fratres") is what people expect more from Part, the somber, yet joyous and ethereal tones with bells pealing. Its what the Eastern Orthodox describe as "joyful sadness."
"Summa" is just gorgeous, that's the best I can give you ;)
"Festina Lente" is a dramatic piece with swells of contrasting emotion that some movie maker will eventually steal turning Arvo Part onto millions of unsuspecting people.
Although this album is geared towards "Fratres," Part's "Silouan's Song" would have been a nice inclusion here as well.
I wouldn't recommend this as the starting spot for Part's music, but its still a fine listen. (To start with Part, I would recommend "Litany" "Miserere" or "Symphony no. 3")
Sublime
I just got this CD in search of the "Fratres for wind octet and percussion." I was braced for some trying repetition, even though the recording also includes my very first Part piece, "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten," and two others, "Summa" and "Festina Lente."
I was wrong. The 79-minute recording is sublime. I was constantly taken by surprise in the different realizations of the basic "Fratres" materials. The "Cantus," "Summa" and "Festina Lente" were added, not to break up the monotony, but to enhance the variety of the CD.
This CD will now join the precious few I listen to when life simply ceases to make sense and I am in desperate need for centering and grounding. (The recording of mystic minimalist works by the Chilingirian String Quartet is one of them. The achingly slow late Bernstein recording of the Barber "Adagio for Strings" is another.)
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