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Litany |  | Creators: Arvo Part, Saulius Sondeckis, Tonu Kaljuste, Hilliard Ensemble, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Label: Ecm Records
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy Used: $2.39
as of 11/27/2009 20:01 CST details
You Save: $13.59 (85%)
New (4) Used (19) from $2.39
Seller: lightning_ship_media
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 29975
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 781182159228
EAN: 0781182159228
ASIN: B0000031ZX
Release Date: September 17, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Litany - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Hilliard Ensemble, , Tallinn Chamber Orchestra | | • | Psalom - Arvo Pärt | | • | Trisagion - Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
With Litany, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt created one of his stirring works: a nearly 23-minute long composition for orchestra and vocal ensemble based upon the 24 prayers of St. John Chrysostom (one for each hour of the day). Commissioned for the 25th Oregon Bach Festival, the composition is both memorable and timeless. It finds influences in everything from chant to the repetition of modern minimalism. Play it loudly and the striking vocals of the Hilliard Ensemble simply soar against the strings of Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. The orchestral Trisagion harkens towards Litany's mood swings and impact, but--sans voice--lacks the mysticism. One of Part's best, and as sacred as modern compositions come. --Jason Verlinde
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
Fascinating and Hypnotizing July 27, 2009
Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA)
I can still recall the first time I heard the music of Arvo Pärt: I was driving home just after 11 p.m. one Sunday night in 1984 after a 12-hour weekend shift as a security guard at a factory, a job I held for five years while in graduate school. I turned on my car radio and heard music unlike any I had ever heard. I was fascinated, nearly hypnotized. I wanted the music to go on forever, and I would have been willing to keep driving forever just to keep hearing it. Who could write music like this!? The announcer came on at the end of the piece and said that this was Tabula Rasa by Arvo Pärt, from a new recording just released on the ECM label.
Twelve years and several ECM recordings later, there was the release of Litany, a fascinating piece that blends the voices of the Hilliard Ensemble with chorus and chamber orchestra to produce a sonic tapestry vibrant in color and rich in texture, a work of surpassing beauty that confirms Pärt's stature as one of the premier composers of this century. I cannot recommend it too highly. Also on this disk are two pieces for chamber orchestra, both inspired by religious texts, and both quite beautiful and moving.
Litany is a disk you could put in the CD player of your car, hit the Repeat button, and drive on into the night forever--fascinated, hypnotized...
Packs a spiritual and emotional wallop July 11, 2009
DoctorD (Delaware)
In the piece "Litany", Part constrasts solemn and measured voices against the agitated instrumental parts. The effect is similar to a cantus firma, except here more in key and tempo since the vocal parts are obviously not a slavish repetition of the same melody. Add in a steady dynamic rise from an opening ppp and the tension increases throughout the piece. Part is showing that despite the hustle and bustle of our modern life, spiritual concerns are more important and will ultimately dominate.
"Trisagion" is just as powerful. Written for strings only, it mixes the emotions of fear, doubt, and triumph together. It evokes the Crucifixion more than anything else and would be appropriate for Good Friday if that service were not music-free/minimal.
"Psalom" is quieter and less intense than the other two selections. It was wisely included here to balance the album.
Arvo Part's Addition to Sanctuary May 23, 2009
J. A. Dettmer
A piece of music that enables you to ask God for forgiveness by listening, not thinking.
Fantastic May 21, 2009
Sidney Carton (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
One of Arvo Part's best works. eMusic has it for about a billion times cheaper.
A staggering collection. February 2, 2009
D. F. Wade (Germany)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Arvo Pärt is my favorite living composer, and a serious contender for my favorite composer of any time period. I have about twenty CDs of his music, containing about 70 of his works. And of these CDs, "Litany" is one of my very favorites. This unassuming, somewhat overlooked CD is a real gem, containing three of Pärt's pieces.
The first is the best, in my opinion. "Litany", clocking in at over 20 minutes and scored for chorus and orchestra, is a haunting, beautiful piece. It is generally structured as one long crescendo, starting off quiet and haunting, and building, building, building to a glorious choral climax that leads into a heart-stopping orchestral passage before dipping down to an otherworldly finish. In my eyes, this work, not only in its range, but also in its orchestration, anticipates another of Pärt's recent masterpieces, "Lamentate". This work alone makes the somewhat steep price of this CD worth it.
The second work, "Psalom", for strings, is the least interesting, in my book, and more along the lines of the meditative music for which Pärt is most well known. But despite being the low point of the album - though not a bad piece by any means - it's beautiful, and in the context of the CD, is a perfect counterbalance to "Litany".
Finally, the CD ends with another piece for string orchestra, "Trisagion", at over ten minutes long. This piece is more involved, dare I say deeper than its predecessor, and a satisfying end to the CD.
A great disc. Highly, highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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