COMPOSERS: Part
LABELS: Naxos
ALBUM TITLE: Pärt
WORKS: Triodion; Ode VII (Memento); I am the True Vine; Dopo la vittoria
PERFORMER: Elora Festiva Singers/Noel Edison
CATALOGUE NO: 8.570239
It’s interesting to compare the
performances of Dopo la vittoria
and Nunc dimittis recorded here
with those on the recent Estonian
Philharmonic Chamber Choir disc
(Harmonia Mundi, reviewed last
issue). Both ensembles are admirably
precise and rounded in tone, and
both seem entirely at home with
Pärt’s unique devotional style, which
at its best can seem to say so much
with such minimal means.
The Estonians’ singing has a
slightly edgier intensity, while it’s
the purity of the Canadian Elora
Festival Singers’ sound that strikes
the ear here. In Dopo la vittoria the
off-beat echo effects in the narrative
sections have a lightness and mobility
that the Elora can’t quite match, but
the climax in the Elora version has
a radiance and a wonderful sense
of gradual repose that is well worth
waiting for.
In fact the Elora are particularly
good with endings: the conclusion of the Nunc dimittis is quietly
compelling – not as gorgeous as the
Estonians, but stirring enough to
linger in the memory. Having said
that, the opening of O Holy Saint
Nicholas is also a model of contained
emotion. The Estonian’s versions
of the austere Kanon Pokajanen will
remain the classic for anyone who
wants to experience this huge, Lenten
meditation in full. But the Elora
version of its seventh movement,
‘Memento’, is a good introduction,
likewise leaving one wondering how
music that seems so technically bare
and expressively self-negating can
leave such a powerful impression.
The recording is excellent: plenty
of ethereal reverberation but with
every detail clearly audible. For
anyone interested in sacred choral
music, this would be a good disc to
start exploring Pärt. Stephen Johnson