Release Date: 01 February 2018
Label: Bis / BIS Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 7318599922928
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Alfred Schnittke
Description
Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt lived through times of remarkable change in the last decades of the Soviet Union. From the 1970s, state restrictions on religion were gradually relaxed and this was reflected in the arts and especially in music. Schnittke’s adoption of Christianity was triggered by the death of his mother in 1972, and culminated in his later conversion to Catholicism. Pärt was from a nominally Lutheran background in Estonia, but embraced the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, following intensive study of liturgical music. Both composers began to incorporate religious themes into their work, moving away from the modernist abstraction that had characterized their early careers. Schnittke’s large-scale Psalms of Repentance were composed in 1988 for the celebrations for the millennium of Christianity in Russia. The texts come from an anonymous collection of poems for Lent, written in the 16th century, and in his settings Schnittke engages with the traditions of chant-based Orthodox liturgical music. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Kaspars Putni?š have chosen to combine Schnittke’s Psalms with two shorter works by Arvo Pärt, whose music they are well-known exponents of. Like the Psalms, Pärt’s pieces are composed in a quasi-liturgical style, and with its serene atmosphere, his Nunc dimittis forms a natural counterpart to the Magnificat even though the two were written more than a decade apart.
Tracklisting
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire; Sascha Goetzel
Oliver Barlow; Arlo Murray; Sergej Merkusjev; Joonas Ahonen; Barbara Kozelj; London Philharmonic Or
Masaaki Suzuki
Miklos Spanyi
Trio Boccherini
Masato Suzuki
Masaaki Suzuki; Masato Suzuki
Masaaki Suzuki
