Ralph van Raat - Arvo Part: Piano Music (2011)

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was still a student when his two Sonatinas op.1 and the Partita op.2 were published. It is unlikely that anyone familiar only with Pärt the modernist of the 1960s or the more tonal-mystical composer from the Eighties onwards would be able to name him as the creator of these early earthy, neo-classical-cum-impressionist, Shostakovich-meets-Ravel pieces. In his notes, Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat writes that in these works "all the seeds of his later musical language are already firmly present: echoes of early music […], a direct focus on expression […], a predilection for the ostinato form […] and a general economy of material with an omnipresent focus on melody." Yet listening to the martial atonality of much of the Partita, for example, many listeners will suspect that even Pärt's own mother would barely recognise him. More probably, these two works mark the advent of a composer who more or less metamorphosed into a different one a few years later, and another one after that.

A first glimpse of the Spiegel-im-Spiegel Pärt is afforded by the Variations for the Recovery of Arinuschka, and then the slightly earlier and darkly reflective Für Alina. This latter was in fact the piece that heralded Pärt's so-called 'tintinnabular' style, through which he has achieved popular fortune and, perhaps, a certain amount of critical infamy as he emerged in the mid-Seventies from artistic hibernation following his uncompromisingly modernist works of the Sixties. According to Pärt, "Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers - in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning." After Spiegel im Spiegel came the well-known Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and the variants of Fratres. The beauty of these pieces lies undoubtedly in their simplicity, but any profundity likely depends heavily on the individual listener, for whom they may be deeply moving or rather boring. Others may blame Pärt for Ludovico Einaudi.

Für Anna Maria, on the other hand, his latest piano piece, is a minute - in both senses - cameo in G major harking back two and a half centuries, like something young Wolfgang Amadeus wrote when he was six (which is not an insult to Pärt) - in fact it was composed for the birthday of a ten-year-old girl. This is the only premiere recording in van Raat's programme.

The major work is Lamentate. Pärt's music would have to go some way to match the dimensions of Anish Kapoor's steel 'n' PVC alien spaceship 'Marsyas', which was displayed from 2002 to 2003 by London's Tate Modern museum, which commissioned Pärt's work for the occasion. Pärt viewed Kapoor's grandiloquent creation, as artistic types are wont to do, as a "confrontation with mortality", and Lamentate (or LamenTate) thus doubles up as a "lament for those who suffer from pain and hopelessness" - which is presumably everyone, though Pärt is not specific. Listener-friendly, tonal, atmospheric, introspective: this magical work is a pan-temporal filmic-Lisztian hybrid of expansive, elegiac soundscapes that often approach stasis. What sets Pärt apart from other 'minimalists' is that he has the genius to create beauty, drama and variety out of very little apparent material - his music almost always evokes a sense of depth, even if the words Pärt uses to write about it are often vacantly New Age.

On the subject of which, Ralph van Raat's notes for Naxos have been criticised elsewhere for their hyperbolic nature. It may be toned down here but it still exhibits an occasional tendency towards spiritual fustian, not content with opening with a gratuitous quotation from the New Testament. Thus: "Arvo Pärt has followed the quest for musical expression within the microcosm of his inner self, a journey of introspection rather than exposure." Van Raat sums up Pärt's music with an almost surreal reverence that borders on gibberish: "Understanding the music of Arvo Pärt requires an open and receptive attitude. [The] gateway to the colours and messages behind the musical surface can only be encoded by an unprecedented focus and concentration. This focus can only originate from total silence, which will only be broken when it necessarily needs to be. His music then just conveys the essentials: the essentials of life and death."

As a pianist, fortunately, van Raat is generally immaculate. He has recorded several CDs for Naxos over the last three or four years, specialising in contemporary music. Discs include Gavin Bryars' Piano Concerto with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic in their own Naxos debut, released earlier this year (review), as well as the solo piano music of John Adams (8.559285), John Tavener (review), Frederic Rzewski (review), Hans Otte (review) and Magnus Lindberg (review). In each case van Raat's pianism was the recipient of enthusiastic thumbs-ups. Here he gives another fine performance characterised by expressive, dexterous and highly polished proportions.

Sound quality too is good. The CD booklet is the usual kind of thing from Naxos, reasonable detail in a tiny font. It is a pity that Naxos and van Raat could not see their way to recording Pärt's two other works for solo piano to date, his Diagramme op.11 and, predating his op.1, the Four Easy Dances: not only would they both have fitted on the disc, but each appears to have been recorded only once previously on CD.

Review by Rob Barnett, Musicweb-International.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 1 from 15. November 2010

EAC extraction logfile from 31. October 2011, 17:24

Arvo Part / Piano Music

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7203A Adapter: 4 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -T "COMMENT=Ripped by GFox" -8 -V %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 2:25.04 | 0 | 10878
2 | 2:25.04 | 4:05.51 | 10879 | 29304
3 | 6:30.55 | 1:47.70 | 29305 | 37399
4 | 8:18.50 | 2:13.72 | 37400 | 47446
5 | 10:32.47 | 1:40.12 | 47447 | 54958
6 | 12:12.59 | 0:45.15 | 54959 | 58348
7 | 12:57.74 | 1:02.02 | 58349 | 63000
8 | 14:00.01 | 3:08.61 | 63001 | 77161
9 | 17:08.62 | 2:11.73 | 77162 | 87059
10 | 19:20.60 | 1:12.23 | 87060 | 92482
11 | 20:33.08 | 1:13.67 | 92483 | 98024
12 | 21:47.00 | 1:06.64 | 98025 | 103038
13 | 22:53.64 | 0:47.19 | 103039 | 106582
14 | 23:41.08 | 1:01.16 | 106583 | 111173
15 | 24:42.24 | 1:07.29 | 111174 | 116227
16 | 25:49.53 | 3:24.08 | 116228 | 131535
17 | 29:13.61 | 1:12.03 | 131536 | 136938
18 | 30:25.64 | 3:10.40 | 136939 | 151228
19 | 33:36.29 | 3:31.13 | 151229 | 167066
20 | 37:07.42 | 0:57.31 | 167067 | 171372
21 | 38:04.73 | 5:07.59 | 171373 | 194456
22 | 43:12.57 | 5:31.28 | 194457 | 219309
23 | 48:44.10 | 1:10.62 | 219310 | 224621
24 | 49:54.72 | 1:23.72 | 224622 | 230918
25 | 51:18.69 | 5:13.57 | 230919 | 254450
26 | 56:32.51 | 2:46.27 | 254451 | 266927
27 | 59:19.03 | 6:31.59 | 266928 | 296311


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\EAC\Arvo Part - Piano Music.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 0.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B94F5A4F
Copy CRC B94F5A4F
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database
Track 10 not present in database
Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database
Track 14 not present in database
Track 15 not present in database
Track 16 not present in database
Track 17 not present in database
Track 18 not present in database
Track 19 not present in database
Track 20 not present in database
Track 21 not present in database
Track 22 not present in database
Track 23 not present in database
Track 24 not present in database
Track 25 not present in database
Track 26 not present in database
Track 27 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

==== Log checksum 2188D542763DC7B7942743BD5F1A3FDC39E017C004DDC74CB88A4FE33317D6A3 ====

foobar2000 1.3.8 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-11-28 16:16:22

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Ralph van Raat / Piano Music
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -3.08 dB -20.35 dB 2:25 01-Zwei Sonatinen fur Klavier, Op.1, Nr.1 - I. Allegro
DR15 0.00 dB -25.30 dB 4:06 02-Zwei Sonatinen fur Klavier, Op.1, Nr.1 - II. Larghetto - Allegro
DR12 -4.00 dB -21.76 dB 1:48 03-Zwei Sonatinen fur Klavier, Op.1, Nr.2 - I. Allegro energico
DR16 -11.62 dB -33.86 dB 2:14 04-Zwei Sonatinen fur Klavier, Op.1, Nr.2 - II. Largo
DR13 -0.38 dB -18.47 dB 1:40 05-Zwei Sonatinen fur Klavier, Op.1, Nr.2 - III. Allegro
DR11 -2.61 dB -18.67 dB 0:45 06-Partita, Op.2 - I. Toccatina
DR11 -6.68 dB -21.57 dB 1:02 07-Partita, Op.2 - II. Fughetta
DR15 -3.23 dB -25.13 dB 3:09 08-Partita, Op.2 - III. Larghetto
DR13 -1.37 dB -20.72 dB 2:12 09-Partita, Op.2 - IV. Ostinato
DR16 -18.69 dB -40.47 dB 1:12 10-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - I. Variation 1: Moderato
DR14 -19.89 dB -38.69 dB 1:14 11-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - II. Variation 2
DR13 -15.43 dB -33.72 dB 1:07 12-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - III. Variation 3
DR13 -15.88 dB -33.74 dB 0:47 13-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - IV. Variation 4: Piu mosso
DR13 -19.79 dB -38.17 dB 1:01 14-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - V. Variation 5
DR12 -9.32 dB -26.80 dB 1:07 15-Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka - VI. Variation 6
DR14 -18.68 dB -45.13 dB 3:24 16-Fur Alina
DR11 -10.74 dB -26.61 dB 1:12 17-Fur Anna Maria
DR15 -0.35 dB -22.71 dB 3:11 18-Lamentate - I. Minacciando
DR12 0.00 dB -15.67 dB 3:31 19-Lamentate - II. Spietato
DR15 -26.82 dB -48.11 dB 0:57 20-Lamentate - III. Fragile
DR14 -5.02 dB -27.07 dB 5:08 21-Lamentate - IV. Pregando
DR15 -17.01 dB -39.76 dB 5:31 22-Lamentate - V. Solitudine - stato d'anomo
DR12 -5.36 dB -25.63 dB 1:11 23-Lamentate - VI. Consolante
DR11 -1.38 dB -15.53 dB 1:24 24-Lamentate - VII. Stridendo
DR14 -9.34 dB -29.77 dB 5:14 25-Lamentate - VIII. Lamentabile
DR12 -0.12 dB -19.08 dB 2:46 26-Lamentate - IX. Risolutamente
DR16 -11.85 dB -35.78 dB 6:32 27-Lamentate - X. Fragile e conciliante
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 27
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 416 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================