Berliner messe - Magnificat

Description

Here is one of the most spiritually rewarding pieces of music of our time, sung by the virtuoso choir Polyphony. Arvo Pärt (the equivalent of John Tavener in England) has succeeded in capturing the attention of a wide audience thanks to his ability to distill a sense of inevitable power into his otherwise simple music. The impressive Berliner Messe, which opens this disc, was composed in 1990. Its Credo is in fact the Summa revisited in a major key; clearly an outpouring of joy at the lifting of the Soviet embargo on sacred music in Estonia. Annum per Annum is a monumental work for solo organ, performed here on the organ of St Paul’s Cathedral. An unforgettable experience! The disc ends with the masterpiece De profundis. The power of the text inspires Pärt to an inexorable surge starting from almost nothing and ending in a devastating climax.