Arvo Pärt – Credo
Michael Kube,
Credo
October 25, 2025Even if the title of the album initially refers only to a score completed in 1968, it is far more comprehensive. It encompasses Arvo Pärt's life, which has now spanned nine decades, but also his work. The "I believe" must be juxtaposed with the comprehensive "credibility" of his music – from his early avant-garde period through a phase of neoclassical experiments to all the works with which he has reached a broad and diverse audience for half a century. It is precisely these quiet, inner-breathing sounds of Tintinnabuli (and its subsequent development) that move and uplift.This makes the eponymous work on this album all the more dramatic, beginning and ending with quotations and echoes of Bach (Gounod) – but rising in between to an ecstasy crying out for help. A work that must be heard in its contemporary context, one that was immediately understood, repeated, and promptly banned at its premiere in Tallinn in 1968. Breaks and turns to other musical ideas and parameters are already living 20th-century music history. This is probably how Mein Weg (1999) can also be heard and understood – a composition previously unknown to me that summarizes much of two decades (yet remains unmentioned in the booklet). The selection of works is as personal as Arvo Pärt's friendship with the Järvi family, and the recording is simply outstanding in every respect.Arvo Pärt. CredoLa Sindone for orchestra and percussion (2005, rev. 2013); Fratres (1977; rev. 1991); Swansong (2013); Für Lennart in memoriam (2006); Da pacem Domine (version for string orchestra) (2004); Silhouette, Hommage à Gustave Eiffel (2009); Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977, rev. 1980); Mein Weg (My Way) for 14 string instruments and percussion (1999, rev. 2000); Credo for piano, mixed choir and orchestra (1968); Estonian Lullaby, version for female voices and string orchestra (2002, rev. 2006)Kalle Randalu (piano), Estonian National Male Choir, Ellerhein Girls Choir, Ellerhein Alumni Choir, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Paavo JärviAlpha ALP 1158 (2025) https://hoerbar.nmz.de/2025/10/arvo-paert-credo/
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