Arvo Pärt - Silentium (2025) Hi-Res

Often played in palliative care facilities, the sacred minimalist music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (pronounced p-air-t) has the undeniable power to mesmerize and calm. “I have nothing to say,” the composer has previously declared, adding how words could in fact kill his music. Any critics who are given the unfortunate task of writing about his music should keep this warning in mind…

The present album revolves around a previously unreleased, extremely slow version of “Silentium,” the second movement of “Tabula Rasa,” played by violinists Alexei Kenney and Stefan Jackiw alongside Bostonian ensemble A Far Cry. Performed in this way, the piece exceeds 20 minutes, abolishing all notion of time like impossibly fragile musica universalis, ethereally suspended in mid-air.

The remainder of the program consists of a compilation including “Vater Unser (Our Father),” enticingly arranged for trombone and strings, the “Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka (Variations for the Healing of Arinushka),” a short piano piece (Marcel Worm) comprising the “Tintinnabuli” so near and dear to Pärt: six variations on a single, simple theme, alternating between minor and major keys. This famous concept is also illustrated by “Fratres,” whose nine different chord sequences are each separated by a percussion motif. The piece is one of his most universally known on account of its numerous instrumental versions, and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra performs it here with tremendous romanticism and expressiveness.