Customer Reviews

Te Deum

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this CD after reading a review of a performance of "Te Deum" at the new Disney Music Center in L.A. I sing in a local church choir and I'm constantly searching for music that appeals to my sometimes esoteric tastes. I have to say after my first listen, last night, that I was so blown away by this particular piece, that I felt the need to pass on my thoughts. If you seek beauty, emotion, spirituality and incredible sonic experiences.
BUY THIS CD!!! It has immediately become my new favorite. I will be buying a lot more of Arvo Part's music.

For a few months after this disc was released, it seemed that every Sunday morning I would play it - OK, I confess - while drinking coffee and reading the New York Times. But its almost supernatural magic is hard to resist.

This program represents Pärt's work very well. His language is basically tonal, and a bit on the austere side, with clear influences from both medieval music and minimalism. Much of the music is slow-moving, thought-provoking, and meditative - no jagged, slashing rhythms here - and much of the time the dynamic levels are quiet.

The Estonian chorus is outstanding, singing with an almost otherworldly glow that adds immensely to the atmosphere of the recording. Sound quality is good - perhaps slightly soft-focused, but it suits the program.

Arvo Part has amazed me for years. This not only could be coined into one of the most depressing records ever recorded by a contemporary classical composer - but also one of the best recordings ever. I'd play it in my portable CD player while walking through cold, spookily sad evenings and life almost becomes a big huge movie. People become written characters - and life's scenarios are film-like and dark. Part's music reflects a certain eternal darkness, suffering, sadness and hopelessness. The record can be also very much appretiated for its beauty, however. Willowed Catholics may enjoy it, artists, painters - this is surely one of my favorites.

Althought this is coming from someone who does not listen to too much "classical" music, I felt the need to say something.

10 minutes ago i was in my room, weeping. "Credo" shot through my heart so fiercely...

Just listen...

This is a lovely work. Part's Te Deum has all of the spirituality that is missing in Pendercki's more modernist version of the text. There are times when I've felt that Part has begun repeating himself, and then I hear works like this and they sound so fresh. Sort of like Stravinsky meets the Notre Dame school of composers.

The Te Deum is the reason to get this disc. Written for chorus and orchestra, it displays some of the harmonic bite that was evident in the choral sections of the St. John Passion. Yet the effect is more haunting, less static and the work builds to a climax of great power.

The other material on the album is lovely as well. But the Te Deum is in a class by itself.

Si lo que buscas es progresar por la senda de la espiritualidad y la paz interior, pues intenta llevar a cabo tu travesía en compañia de esta sobrecogedora obra de Part. El sitio y los musicos, el precio y EMC son garantía sobrada para tormarlo y pagar unos cuantos pesos por una obra espiritual del calibre de la musica tibetana. Te trasportaras totalmente a lugares de paz y tranquilidad que de seguro no conoces. Bien adelante y compra este boleto a la eternidad... Excelentes ejecuciones.

Si lo que buscas es progresar por la senda de la espiritualidad y la paz interior, pues intenta llevar a cabo tu travesía en compañia de esta sobrecogedora obra de Part. El sitio y los musicos, el precio y EMC son garantía sobrada para tormarlo y pagar unos cuantos pesos por una obra espiritual del calibre de la musica tibetana. Te trasportaras totalmente a lugares de paz y tranquilidad que de seguro no conoces. Bien adelante y compra este boleto a la eternidad... Excelentes ejecuciones.

What a recording. Transcendent, moving, profound. Arvo Part writes deeply spiritual music that will touch the quiet soul.

I bought this from a record club on the strength of the blurb, but had no idea what to expect. I popped it into the CD player one winter Saturday and when the first notes sounded, I was hooked. I think I listened to the whole thing straight through while perched on the edge of the sofa, and to this day I can't explain why I had tears rolling down my face, but I did. And that's the strength of Part's work - there is a dignity and a deep, deep passion in the music that echoes in your bones.

I picked up this cd after hearing R. Shaw's Evocation of the Spirit, where Part's Magnificat was my first exposure to the Estonian's music.

The weather was clear and crisp that night with no moon as I listened outside.

This is by no means an album for the casual listener. It takes work and time. However, the journey is WELL worth it.

This music is a journey into Part's deeply felt Orthodox beliefs. The love he ascribes the One he worships is communicated in the yearning and beauty of this. There is sublimity. THere is solitude. THere is dissonance. There is a new way to consider harmony through a liturgy that is two millenia old.

The orchestration is as bare as the vocals. In that, the content of the words take precedent.

The highlight of the disk is the joy of the Credo movement of Das Berliner Messe. Part expresses the joys of the source of his beliefs.

Join in the Part's emotions and visions of God-regardless of the weather.