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Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is known to hundreds of thousands of classical record buyers throughout the world for his deeply spiritual compositions. His music has a simplicity and purity that sets him apart from nearly every other modern classical composer.
Passio - over an hour long - is a setting of the Passion text in Latin, and represent the summit of Pärt's early achievement with his new-found tintinnabuli style. Tintinnabuli is the name he gives to a technique that harnesses the acoustic power of the basic triad and the traditional modes and scales of early music. Using the most concentrated of musical means Pärt communicates the depth and universal spirituality of the Passion story - the betrayal, denial, trial and crucifixion of Jesus as told in John's Gospel.
The main narrative in Passio is given to an Evangelist Quartet, accompanied by violin, oboe, cello and bassoon. Jesus' words are set at a slower pace and sung by a bass continuously mirrored by the organ, while Pilate is sung by a tenor. All the other characters, including the crowd, are sung by the choir.
This performance of Passio is different to previous recordings in its approach to the pacing of the whole structure and in its fidelity to the rhythmic durations in the score. In particular, TONUS PEREGRINUS made the decision to be very precise in their reading of the pauses between the different sections. Pärt, after hearing the first edit of this recording, was inspired to clarify exactly what he meant by these pauses (some of which are very long), and his decisions are reflected in the final version. These subtle differences underline more than ever the heartrending and powerful force of this music, and in the resulting performance sound and silence hold equal weight, transporting the listener into a state of ecstatic wonderment.
The director of TONUS PEREGRINUS, Antony Pitts says "It was a privilege to record this radical late 20th-century masterpiece that manages to convey the truth and power of the ancient Christian Gospel story in a new and compelling way. On the surface the music seems to be contained within cloistered limits, but underneath there is an ocean of detail bathing each word in its own particular shades of colour."
TONUS PEREGRINUS have been making music since the foundation of the ensemble at New College, Oxford in 1990. Based on a core of eight young singers, their repertoire journeys from mediaeval polyphony via the English masters of the 16th and 17th Centuries to today's music, including many specially-written works by the ensemble's director Antony Pitts. It was a recording of Pitts's sacred choral music that led Klaus Heymann of Naxos to commission this new recording of Passio, as well as a forthcoming interpretation of the 14th-century Mass of Tournai. TONUS PEREGRINUS hope to reach a wide audience with this debut on Naxos and to bring this incredibly beautiful and emotive music to new and receptive ears across the world.
Anyone moved by the chart-topping monks singing Gregorian chant or by Henryk Gorecki's best-selling "Third Symphony" should sample this new recording. It is a quietly stunning performance, its solemnity and stark simplicity offering an oasis of calm in a restless world.
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