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| Tabula Rasa | 
 enlarge | Artists: Dennis Russell Davies, Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer, Stuttgart State Orchestra, Tatiana Grindenko, Alfred Schnittke, Twelve Cellists Of The Berlin Philharmonic
Creators: Arvo Part, Dennis Russell Davies, Saulius Sondeckis, 12 Cellists Of The Berlin Philharmonic, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer, Tatjana Grindenko
Label: Ecm Records
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $11.62
You Save: $6.36 (35%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $8.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  (20 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4359
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.4
MPN: 817764
UPC: 042281776427
EAN: 0042281776427
ASIN: B0000262K7
Release Date: November 16, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Fratres | | • | Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten | | • | Fratres | | • | Tabula Rasa |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
This seminal disc now almost seems like the manifesto for a whole new strain of minimalism that has found an enormously receptive audience. It represented a breakthrough for Estonian composer Arvo Paert, whose music--like that of his European colleagues John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki--pursues an austerely beautiful simplicity that suggests spiritual illumination. Fratres, given here in two versions, one for piano and violin and the other for 12 cellos, repeatedly intones a sequence resembling chant to convey a sensibility that seems at once archaic and beyond time. Violinist Gidon Kremer, for whom Paert wrote the exquisitely contemplative and hypnotic title work, grasps the music's koan-like idiom, allowing an inner fullness to resonate through the most fragile, ethereal wisps of tone against the mysterious clangings of prepared piano. The tolling of the tubular bells in Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten is an emotionally charged lament, based on a simple minor descending scale, that introduces Paert's fascination with what he calls "tintinnabulation": the literal and metaphorical sound of ringing bells. This recording is also famous for the acoustically warm presence produced by ECM's Manfred Eicher, which magnificently captures the mystical simplicity of Paert's sound world. --Thomas May
Amazon.com
This seminal disc now almost seems like the manifesto for a whole new strain of minimalism that has found an enormously receptive audience. It represented a breakthrough for Estonian composer Arvo Paert, whose music--like that of his European colleagues John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki--pursues an austerely beautiful simplicity that suggests spiritual illumination. Fratres, given here in two versions, one for piano and violin and the other for 12 cellos, repeatedly intones a sequence resembling chant to convey a sensibility that seems at once archaic and beyond time. Violinist Gidon Kremer, for whom Paert wrote the exquisitely contemplative and hypnotic title work, grasps the music's koan-like idiom, allowing an inner fullness to resonate through the most fragile, ethereal wisps of tone against the mysterious clangings of prepared piano. The tolling of the tubular bells in Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Brittenis an emotionally charged lament, based on a simple minor descending scale, that introduces Paert's fascination with what he calls "tintinnabulation": the literal and metaphorical sound of ringing bells. This recording is also famous for the acoustically warm presence produced by ECM's Manfred Eicher, which magnificently captures the mystical simplicity of Paert's sound world. --Thomas May
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
A wonderful and intriguing labryinth February 29, 2008
I found it impossible not to react on a variety of emotional levels to Part's music, especially Tabula Rasa. It almost demands feeling. It is also music whose complexities draw one continually to explore it. The more you listen, the more there is to find.
music so good you'll cry April 21, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I first heard one of the songs playing in a Starbucks and had to ask them what it was... I couldn't hear it very well, but I knew I needed to hear more. After I got home and listened to the previews on Amazon, I was hooked.
There is so much depth and sweetness to this music. It has literally brought me to tears. If you're looking for an album of chamber music that truely goes beyond the normal lulling sound and into the realm of true artistic expression, this is one to own. It is one of the prizes of my collection.
This is one for everybody August 30, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm not completely dug on classical and contemporanean music, ECM stuff included. Lygeti, Xenakis they make me sense, all along american minimalists like Reich or Cage. Electro-acustic is more ear-friendly for me (Ferrari, Parmegiani) but... All this speech just to say that thsi is one ECM record I own - the 1977's Tabula Rasa. The great Gidon Kramer (check out "Silence" from Nonesuch who has another version of tabula rasa) is here with all his magic, even the world-piano-star K. Jarrett plays piano, and everything makes sense. The music is so cold and complex, ethernal yet listenable for the common of mortals. Give a try, i did and i'm inloved with.
should be accepted by any rational person as strong evidence for God's existence. June 20, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
arguably, it was THIS music by THIS composer that Manfred Eicher's label, ECM, was meant for. If an album was released on ECM, no doubt it sounds lovely, but when purpose is paired so perfectly with sound, even ECM attains something angelic and beyond. Arvo Part's non-modulating approach to harmony, great care and attention with so few notes, and the reverent spirit that carries through his efforts encompasses a catalogue of works so great and beautiful I'm not sure any 20th century composer can remotely compare.
This ECM disc is possibly the best of all. _Tabula Rasa_, first and foremost, is a masterpiece. A violin concerto of sorts, it flows through static haze and torrid whorls, with ghostly sounds of strings punctuated by the bell- and chime-like intonations on sounds of prepared piano. Divine and without momentum, this piece forever hovers between being and nothing. _Fratres_, performed in two versions here (for violin and piano, and for 12 cellos), features a chorale-like figure recurring over an ethereal drone. Radiant and simple, not a sound is out of place. the _Cantus_ is based on rich chords arranged in a variety of rhythmic patterns, so beautiful one kind of wishes it would last longer.
this is an excellent introduction to one of the best composers of the 20th century. i would really encourage you to hear this.
Fill in your blank slate with some innovative music... January 2, 2006
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This CD started it all. In 1984 it introduced the then little known Arvo Paert to a new western audience. Paert had long before made his "tinntinnabulation" discovery (around 1976). Before this pivotal epiphany, the majority of Paert's work fell into the serialist category. His early work shows all of the grinding atonal experimentation of the 1950s. It thus lies in stark contrast to his later work as presented on this CD (he shares this same evolutionary path with the Polish composer Gorecki).
"Tabula Rasa" introduced a new music and a new style to the west. This music doesn't follow traditional harmonic or melodic forms. Listening to Paert differs from listening to Sibelius or Stravinski. In Paert, environment and setting are everything. The melodies and harmonies function to set a mood rather than to follow a path or a harmonic progression leading to an ultimate resolution. Subsequently, one experiences rather than listens to Paert's work. The notes merely provide the structure. In this way Paert's pieces represent frameworks for music (which probably explains, as related in the CD booklet, why the members of one orchestra asked "where is the music" upon seeing the score for "Tabula Rasa"). So Paert not only presents beautiful and moving music but also helps listeners conceive of it in new ways.
The tracks on this CD provide the perfect showcase for Paert's work. Beginners should start here. Two versions of the meditative "Fratres" appear, but each utilize such different arrangements that they sound like two separate works. "Cantus" remains one of Paert's most moving compositions. It sounds like a slowly exploding wall of catharsis. The nearly half hour "Tabula Rasa" features incredible violin work and prepared piano (a la Cage). Overall, the mood of each piece on this CD veers strongly toward the meditative, mystical, and ethereal. As such it serves as a great introduction to the "late" Paert and as a showcase of incredible musicianship.
Paert remains more of a phenomenon on CD than in the concert hall. The lush rich sound of this CD, which will have your cochleas swimming, provides some evidence as to why. Not only that, the amount of quietude and silence utilized by Paert must create difficulties for orchestra hall performance. Paert's music, intimate and close, probably plays best in seclusion or in small venues. For the maximum experience, put on some headphones and listen to this CD. In this way listeners can experience all the subtle harmonics and nuances that make up the music of Arvo Paert.
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