Arvo Pärt: Lamentate

‘Death and suffering are the themes that concern every person born into this world. The way in which the individual comes to terms with these issues (or fails to do so) determines his attitude towards life, whether consciously or unconsciously… This is the subject matter underlying my composition Lamentate. Accordingly, I have written a lament – not for the dead, but for the living, who have to deal with these issues for themselves.’ This was how composer Arvo Pärt referred to his largest instrumental work to date. Also recorded in this new video are the Psalom for string orchestra and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten.

Composer: Arvo Pärt
Artist: Pedro Piquero (piano), Orquesta de Extremadura & Álvaro Albiach (conductor)

Taking his initial inspiration from Marsyas, a massive sculpture created by Anish Kapoor in 2002 for the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern in London, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt conceived Lamentate as a lament not for the dead but for the living, ‘who have to deal with these issues for themselves’ – something of a spiritual sequel to Brahms’s German Requiem.

The soundworld of the piece, however, as a 40-minute concertante work for piano and large orchestra, could hardly be more different from Brahms, dealing in characteristically polar opposites between ‘brutal-overwhelming’ and ‘intimate-fragile’, in the composer’s terminology. Swiftness and calm, light and dark, time and timelessness are fused in a vast organic score of ten continuous movements pointing to the ineffability of death and suffering.

The two short companion pieces distil that feeling for intimacy and fragility which the composer has made his own for six decades and more in the ‘tintinabulation’ style which has proved so influential on subsequent generations looking to compose distinctively modern music with spiritual content and meaning. Psalom is an instrumental setting of Psalm 112, as a summons to praise God, to place hope in Him and to find redemption for suffering in the intercession of God. The Cantus written in memory of Benjamin Britten remains one of Part’s most haunting and perfect works, almost half a century on from its composition: a modern classic of music’s special capacity to absorb and transform and then transcend grief.

The pianist Pedro Piquero studied in his home country of Spain and then the US. He has pursued a dual career of pianist and translator, producing definitive editions of foundational texts of Zen Buddhism and in 2017 becoming a Zen master. This search for spiritual wisdom and transcendence makes him a performer of rare insight when addressing the music of Pärt, and his essay for this album concludes by offering it as ‘a release from affliction through the truth pointed to by the composer’s generous and compassionate craft.’

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Tracklist:
Lamentate:
00:00 I. Minacciando
03:21 II. Spietato
06:38 III. Fragile
07:25 IV. Pregando
12:47 V. Solitudine –stato d'animo
18:29 VI. Consolante
19:53 VII. Stridendo
21:32 VIII. Lamentabile
28:39 IX. Risolutamente
31:25 X. Fragile e conciliante

38:18 Psalom
43:58 Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

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[BrilliantClassics]

Thank you for watching, we hope you enjoyed the music! Tracklist:
Lamentate:
00:00 I. Minacciando
03:21 II. Spietato
06:38 III. Fragile
07:25 IV. Pregando
12:47 V. Solitudine –stato d'animo
18:29 VI. Consolante
19:53 VII. Stridendo
21:32 VIII. Lamentabile
28:39 IX. Risolutamente
31:25 X. Fragile e conciliante

38:18 Psalom
43:58 Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

[romeobiondi]

Nur mit der Musik von Arvo Pärt lebe ich noch, nach sechs Krebs Operationen und über drei Jahren nichts mehr richtiges Essen. Er war und ist mein Anker in dieser stürmischen See. Er gab mir immer Trost und Kraft, nicht aufzugeben. Danke Arvo

[digitl-s]

Fantastic Sound. Fantastic Interpretation. And on top of everything: Fantastic Composition. Inefable. No words.
Only
The Bells.

[kevinvallejo]

Arvo Pärt is one of the few people to ever live who have truly heard the voice of god, and translated for us.

[OmarFernandesAly]

Thank you Brillant Classics for this wonderful music!!!

[miguelangelous]

Life affirming, Life renounced, Life Abundantly more ❤🕊️

[gordonschafer]

This is the piece that was my introduction to Arvo Part's one of the best moments of my life's musical journey.

[patrickanthonylynch]

Psalom is the most moving piece of music I have ever heard...

[SergeMarzin]

Arvo Pärt, sublime, tant de justesse dans ses compositions, tellement inspirant. Un très beau voyage en intériorité. Merci pour ce partage.

[josemariamartinez-onalopez]

I appreciate from the depths of my being this wonderful music. It is a consolation for our painful existence. Thank you very much for letting us know.

[iceman]

Melancólica, lúgubre, pero alentadora, esperanzadora y poderosa

[MJSpangle]

This is a truly powerful composition, revealing just what the term dramatic can really mean, absent any melodrama.

[LaurenceGuillon]

Une beauté qui n'est pas de ce monde

[rickriekert]

That sliding orchestral crescendo at the beginning recalls those in the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.”

[freebirdflyglad]

OPB did a segment on this composer and I was on it. Have been listening ever since. Your music is pure and powerful. I think of the senselessness of war, brave young men going to battle, and our prayers for peace!

[twillertorganprojects]

Great music especially LAMENTABILE 21:32 Thank you

[ismaelmoreno]

Maravilla de música la del estonio universal, gracias Arvo Pärt

[miguelangelous]

“The point at which we stand to view something forms the apex of an inverted pyramid whose base is indeterminable.” ~ Fernando Pessoa

[MenelionFR]

This is… grand. Sometimes very gloomy, but definitely it's great and powerful music.

[makeperday]

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." -Herman Melville