Paavo Järvi, who has known Arvo Pärt since childhood and collaborated with him throughout his career said: „Celebrating Arvo’s landmark birthday and paying tribute to him has been personally very important and for this year’s festival, recording and tour with the Estonian Festival Orchestra, I wanted to include compositions that documented his entire compositional process.”
The title Credo highlights Pärt’s seminal work, famously premiered in Soviet occupied Tallinn by Neeme Järvi in 1968. With giant orchestral and choral forces it was the closing work at this year’s Pärnu Music Festival, with Paavo taking over the baton from his father for a monumental performance which, five decades after its premiere, has lost none of its sting. „The power and depth of the work, its transcendence and moving performance made it an unforgettable conclusion to the festival” wrote Opera Plus.
Also featured on the album are La Sindone, Fratres, Swansong, Für Lennart in memoriam, Da pacem Domine, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, Mein Weg and Estonian Lullaby.
„Lullabies are like little pieces of lost Paradise” said Arvo Pärt „a small consolation combined with the feeling of profundity and intimacy … for adults and for the child within every one of us.”
The recording also features renowned Estonian pianist Kalle Randalu, together with the Estonian National Male Choir, the Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, and the Ellerhein Alumni Choir.
The album will be available on Spotify.
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