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Track(s) taken from CDA67375

Salve regina

composer
Arvo Pärt (b1935)
2002
author of text
Anonymous - liturgical
Antiphon to the Virgin Mary from Trinity until Advent

Polyphony, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (organ), Stephen Layton (conductor)
Recording details: January 2003
Temple Church, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: September 2003
Total duration: 12 minutes 13 seconds
 

Reviews

‘A triumph … warm melodies and bursts of colourful chords … sublime, ethereal beauty … Polyphony's is a gorgeous performance’ (Gramophone)

‘The singing on this disc is little short of stunning: Polyphony's sense of ensemble is second to none, and conductor Stephen Layton paces these works with an unerring sense of Pärt's instinctive feeling for space and texture. The recording, in London's Temple Church, adds a luminuous aura of its own … a deeply satisfying listening experience’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Layton's superb choir responds eagerly to the different challenges of the various choral traditions from which these pieces derive … Polyphony give meticulous performances … perhaps the most powerful piece is the haunting Burns setting for countertenor, My heart's in the highlands, beautifully performed by David James and Christopher Bowers-Broadbent’ (The Sunday Times)

‘The heartfelt conviction of these pieces registers profoundly with Stephen Layton, who draws sublime singing from Polyphony … the choir's pursuit of perfection ideally complements the sheer beauty of the music’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘This Polyphony recital has been carefully thought-out, and deserves the accolades, notably for the quiet singing and the engulfing, resonant sound. Notes are excellent, and the experience would probably, for 78 minutes, make a believer of an asteroid’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Only the most pure and precise of choral groups can raise Arvo Pärt's work to its optimum level of expression. Polyphony and its conductor Stephen Layton make ideal interpreters’ (Financial Times)

‘There's a line in this disc's title track, from an Orthodox ode addressed to Saint Nicholas: "therewithal hast thou acquired: by humility—greatness, by poverty—riches". This might have been written about Arvo Pärt's compositional technique, here liberated from the minimalist strictures of earlier decades, treading a fine line between agony and ecstasy in a way unparalleled since Bach … Arvo Pärt's new disc of choral music conveys a quiet and cumulative power, given performances of luminous purity by Polyphony and Stephen Layton’ (BBCi)
Like the Littlemore Tractus, Pärt’s setting of the Salve Regina has an extended hymn-like feel to it. Typically, it builds very gradually to a late, majestic climax—unison vocal lines at the outset, broader harmonies later, some intriguing eccentricities in the organ part along the way.

It was the wish of Hubert Luthe, Bishop of Essen Cathedral, that this particular text be set in honour of the building’s priceless golden Madonna. The premiere was in May 2002, to mark both the Bishop’s seventy-fifth birthday and Essen’s own 1150th anniversary.

from notes by Meurig Bowen © 2003

Comme Littlemore Tractus, la musique que Pärt écrivit pour le Salve Regina donne l’impression d’un hymne de vastes proportions. D’une manière caractéristique, il élabore très progressivement un apogée tardif et majestueux—des lignes vocales à l’unisson du début, des harmonies plus larges ultérieurement avec en chemin quelques excentricités étonnantes.

C’est Hubert Luthe, Evêque de la Cathédrale de Essen qui souhaitait voir ce texte mis en musique en l’honneur de la Madone en or inestimable de la Cathédrale. La première audition fut donnée en mai 2002 pour célébrer à la fois les soixante-quinze ans de l’évêque et les 1150 ans de Essen.

extrait des notes rédigées par Meurig Bowen © 2003
Français: Isabelle Battioni

Wie der Littlemore Tractus enthält auch Pärts Vertonung des Salve Regina-Textes Anklänge an ein Kirchenlied. Ein spät im Stück erscheinender, würdevoller Höhepunkt wird wie üblich nur ganz allmählich erreicht—unisono gesungene Gesangsstimmen zu Beginn, breitere Harmonien später, einige erstaunliche Merkwürdigkeiten in der Orgelstimme auf dem Weg.

Der Bischof des Essener Doms, Hubert Luthe, hatte den Wunsch geäußert, dass genau dieser Text für ein musikalisches Werk verwendet werden sollte, um die unschätzbare Goldene Madonna des Gebäudes zu ehren. Die Uraufführung fand im Mai 2002 zum 75. Geburtstag des Bischofs und dem 1150. Jahrestags der Stadt Essen statt.

aus dem Begleittext von Meurig Bowen © 2003
Deutsch: Elke Hockings

Other albums featuring this work

Pärt: Triodion & other choral works
Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)
This album is not yet available for downloadSACDA67375Super-Audio CD — Deleted

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