Arvo Pärt: The Complete Symphonies

Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir leader
Eva Ollikainen
Chandos CHSA 5372
https://www.chandos.net/
Chandos has performed a genuine service in assembling all four of Arvo Pärt's symphonies on a single disc. Complete recordings of Pärt's symphonies are rare, and the works themselves bear little relationship to one another, each representing a distinct phase of a restless and searching creative life.

The First Symphony (1963), composed shortly after Pärt graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory, consists of two movements with distinctly baroque titles — Canons and a Prelude and Fugue — although the harmonic language is entirely different, with a distinct hint of twelve-tone serialism. The Second Symphony (1966) intensifies the experiment: three movements in which serialism mingles with textural gestures that hint at Penderecki and the Polish school; the third movement's conclusion was left deliberately unresolved before leading with considerable skill into the Third Symphony.

That Third Symphony (1971) marks the great pivot. Pärt had spent the late 1960s immersed in Gregorian chant and mediaeval polyphony, and the consequences are audible in every bar: austerity, modal clarity, and the long melodic breath of plainchant. The cellos and percussion receive special prominence, and the Icelandic players respond with quiet authority.

Symphony No. 4, subtitled 'Los Angeles' and composed in 2007–08, inhabits an entirely different spiritual atmosphere. Scored for strings, harps, timpani, and percussion alone, it draws on two great litanies of the Orthodox Church, and the result is music of rarefied, devotional beauty—there are passages in which one feels quite simply at prayer. The enigmatic ending is captured with beautiful precision.

Eva Ollikainen, chief conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2020, proves an ideal guide throughout. Her meticulous attention to detail never tips into fussiness, and a haunting serenity pervades the whole performance. One of the disc's great pleasures is the orchestra's ability to sustain that characteristic halo-like tone in the quieter passages, bringing out every inner voice with remarkable control.

Indispensable Pärt.