CD Review of Arvo Pärt's The Deer's Cry
Vox
Clamantis; Jaan-Elk Tulve
ECM
New
Series
ECM 2466
A mixture of the new and old recorded
here by Estonian choir Vox Clamantis, this CD includes the world recording
premiere of Habitare fratres in unum
and the largely plainchant And One of the
Pharisees, which had its world premiere in California in 1992. There is a
variety of Pärt’s music here: from the innocence-evoking Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima to the ode to a gittern, Sei gelobt, du Baum. (Read the info about the latter here.)
Serendipitously, I started my day
reading St. Patrick’s 4th-century prayer, The
Deer’s Cry, and the title track contains a purity comparable to Lang’s I Lie. The Alleluia-Tropus is different than my recording by Vox Clamantis
with Sinfonietta Riga: at a decade’s distance, this a capella version is 25
seconds longer and less dance-like, perhaps the liturgical pace being more
fitting for the intercession of St. Nicholas of Myra. Most notable to me,
however, was Summa, a tintinnabulist
piece containing the Apostle’s Creed in Latin. While it is recorded here a
capella, as originally written, I only have the string versions of it, which
convey swells of movement (indeed, I made a little film with it as accompaniment); the choral is more plodding and deliberate in its affirmation of
belief—I could picture Joan of Arc reciting it defiantly, atop her pyre as she
awaited the lighting of the wood. The CD ends with Gebet nach dem Kanon, a fitting closing prayer to the collection.
The
liner notes are Pärtesque: sparse, multilingual and presuming knowledge of his
work and liturgical music history. There is no text about the work and lyrics are in Church Slavonic, Spanish, Latin, German and English, with no translations, as is the usual case with such releases these days. But if you enjoy looking up
information (e.g. the Russian scriptures have different versification at times:
Drei Hirtenkinder is about the West’s
Psalm 8:2, not 8:3), there’s a wealth of
enlightenment available. Artistic director Jaan-Eik Tulve has translated the
81-year-old composer’s personal tutelage faithfully and Pärt devotees will be
enraptured, the faithful and secularists alike.
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