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Pärt: Odes of Repentance / Lingas, Cappella Romana
Cappella Records

Pärt: Odes of Repentance / Lingas, Cappella Romana

Contemporary Spiritual Serene Contemplative Exotic
$19.99

Details

Composer
Arvo Part
Artist
Cappella Romana
Format
CD
Label
Cappella Records
Released
Oct 13, 2023
Catalog #
CR428
UPC
753459506271

About

The Eastern Orthodox understanding of repentance doesn’t dwell on morose sorrow for past transgressions. Instead it focuses on deliverance and optimism: repentance, from the Greek metánoia, is a change of mind, a fundamentally positive redirection. This recording presents Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox choral works for the first time as a service (or office) of supplication (Greek paráklesis, Slavonic molében). The office is built around the singing of a Byzantine poem called a kanon, on this occasion three odes from Pärt’s monumental Kanon Pokajanen (Kanon of Repentance).

Compositions by Pärt likewise comprise the other elements of this office: a Gospel reading marks the center of the service (The Woman with the Alabaster Box) completed by psalmody, Orthodox hymns, and fervent prayers. Pärt’s transcendent “Prayer after the Kanon” eventually gives way to silence, to the prayer of the heart. Cappella Romana transforms hearts and minds through encounters with the sacred musical inheritance of the Christian East and West, bringing to life these ancient and diverse traditions, especially of Byzantium, and their interactions with other cultures. Cappella Romana is devoted to the stewardship of this precious jewel of world culture. Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance is Cappella Romana’s 31st release.

REVIEWS:

In this album, the stars, the galaxies, all the wonders of a distant universe seem to touch us through the medium of sound. Whether or not one is knowledgeable about Eastern sacred music, this is an album of supreme artistry to cherish, heed, and enjoy.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana’s Odes of Repentance is a selection of Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox works woven into a service of public and private prayers of supplication and renewal. While Pärt is widely identified with works having an Eastern spiritual flavor, his pedagogical background derives from Western classical music and the musical traditions of the Roman Catholic church. However, since his conversion to Orthodoxy some 50 years ago, the public has come to associate Pärt with music as inspired by Eastern Christianity.

Odes consists of 12 spellbinding tracks which give voice to the human yearning to be cleansed of past mistakes and to make positive changes in one’s future life. As the excellent booklet notes in Church Slavonic and English tell us, these prayers are less an expression of sorrow than they are an affirmation of rebirth. This renascence is expressed eloquently through Pärt’s music in an imaginative flow of melodies, modal harmonies, unexpected twists and turns, and the composer’s unique tintinnabuli technique.

What I found most absorbing in this recording was the variety of musical utterances, the splendid multiplicity of sounds, rhythms and tremors. Something new is lurking around the corner of every measure, sometimes as puzzling as our own contemplated destinies.

The album begins with an Ode from the Triodion and two Slavic Psalms (Psalm 131, “Lord, my heart is not haughty” King James Version [KJV] and the Doxology Psalm 116). The Ode is the first of three in this recording from the Triodion, a liturgical book used in the Eastern Church during Lent. Seven selections from the Kanon of Repentance shine at the heart of the album.

These tracks could not be more different. Slow staccato notes tiptoe under a silvery upper register in the third track while an almost Western sensibility shapes the sound of the fourth (did I hear a touch of Mahler?). The swinging rhythms and unexpected pauses of Kanon Ode 9 remind us that “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”, but, rather, in a world that sometimes stretches far beyond the Western orientation of many listeners.

The album also includes a sung “reading” from the Gospel of Matthew, “The Woman with the Alabaster Box” (“There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.” KJV). Pärt’s music floats effortlessly from the ensemble and melts into the next selection, scattered with little discords.

This is Cappella Romana’s 31st album. While the group specializes in the sacred music of the Christian East and West, it is known largely for its stewardship of the music of Byzantium and the works of Arvo Pärt. Those of us raised in Western cultural traditions have missed much if we have ignored or been deprived of the legacy of Eastern sacred music, old or new. There is a core of authenticity in Pärt’s work that has endeared it, even in his lifetime, to millions around the world.

-- ConcertoNet

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 Triodion: Ode I: O Jesus the Son of God, Have Mercy upon Us 05:28
    Track
    1
    Title
    Triodion: Ode I: O Jesus the Son of God, Have Mercy upon Us
    Duration
    05:28
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Performer
    Kerry McCarthy
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  2. 2 2 Slawische Psalmen: No. 2. Psalm 131, "Childlike Surrender" from No. 1 Psalm 116 03:52
    Track
    2
    Title
    2 Slawische Psalmen: No. 2. Psalm 131, "Childlike Surrender" from No. 1 Psalm 116
    Duration
    03:52
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  3. 3 Sedálen (Káthisma) and Bogoródichen (Theotokíon) 04:23
    Track
    3
    Title
    Sedálen (Káthisma) and Bogoródichen (Theotokíon)
    Duration
    04:23
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  4. 4 Ode VI 08:49
    Track
    4
    Title
    Ode VI
    Duration
    08:49
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  5. 5 Kontakion 03:24
    Track
    5
    Title
    Kontakion
    Duration
    03:24
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  6. 6 Ikos 03:25
    Track
    6
    Title
    Ikos
    Duration
    03:25
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  7. 7 The Woman with the Alabaster Box 06:41
    Track
    7
    Title
    The Woman with the Alabaster Box
    Duration
    06:41
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  8. 8 Ode VIII 08:58
    Track
    8
    Title
    Ode VIII
    Duration
    08:58
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  9. 9 Ninye k vam (Ode IX) 07:21
    Track
    9
    Title
    Ninye k vam (Ode IX)
    Duration
    07:21
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  10. 10 Triodion: Ode II: O Most Holy Birth-giver of God, Save Us 05:02
    Track
    10
    Title
    Triodion: Ode II: O Most Holy Birth-giver of God, Save Us
    Duration
    05:02
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  11. 11 Kanon Pokajanen: Prayer After the Canon 11:20
    Track
    11
    Title
    Kanon Pokajanen: Prayer After the Canon
    Duration
    11:20
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas
  12. 12 Triodion: Ode III: O Holy Saint Nicholas, Pray unto God for Us - Coda 05:27
    Track
    12
    Title
    Triodion: Ode III: O Holy Saint Nicholas, Pray unto God for Us - Coda
    Duration
    05:27
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Performer
    Kerry McCarthy
    Ensemble
    Cappella Romana
    Conductor
    Alexander Lingas