Meeting Arvo Pärt

The shimmering gold leaf and lush chandelier-lit Great Hall of the Musikverein was the setting for the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater for string orchestra and mixed choir (soprano, alto, tenor), written for the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, performing this evening with the Wiener Singverein. Modeled on a work from 1985 of the same title, for three voices and string trio, this version of Stabat Mater clearly reflects Pärt’s signature ‘tintinnabulation’ technique, with canonic procedures and related structural elements common to music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Latin text, 20 groups of three stanzas (the number three---also evident in the choice of choir voices, omitting the bass---symbolizing the Holy Trinity), has been set by well over a dozen composers. Translated as ‘the mother is standing’, it is a meditation on Mary’s suffering during the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ.

The composer, Arvo Pärt, was present for this first performance, and received an ecstatic response from the audience. During intermission, I could see from my seat high in the right balcony where he had been cornered---mobbed?---and made my way down to greet him. What a thrill, to meet this man whose music I’ve admired for so many years. He graciously autographed my program, seeming much younger in person than his photos convey. The elegant conductor, Kristjan Järvi, who also leads the Absolute Ensemble in New York, started the program with a sensual rendition of the third and fourth movements from Messiaen’s L’Ascension. Järvi spun ethereal, otherworldly and sensual textures from the orchestra that set the mood for Pärt’s Stabat Mater, which followed.

The second half of the concert, devoted to Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo and Juliet, showcased the conductor’s affinity for rock, and rock it did. Järvi emphasized the weight and heft implicit in this ballet, investing it with a primitivism that sometimes brought Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to mind.