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| Adam's Lament: Arvo Pärt at 90 - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste - Barbican Hall (Photo: Raigo Pajula / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir) |
Adam's Lament: Arvo Pärt at 90 - Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, L’abbé Agathon, Adam's Lament, Fratres, Te Deum; Maria Listra, Harry Traksmann, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste ; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 7 October 2025
Mysticism, drama & intense spirituality in a selection of Arvo Pärt's music that mixed the familiar with the less familiar from performers closely associated with his work.
The UK celebrations for Arvo Pärt's birthday continued on 7 October 2025 with a return visit from Tõnu Kaljuste and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir this time with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra at a concert at the Barbican Hall which was attended by His Excellency Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia. The concert, titled Adam's Lament, featured a welcome mix of the well-known and the lesser known with Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, L’abbé Agathon (with soprano Maria Listra), Adam's Lament, Fratres (with violinist Harry Traksmann) and Te Deum, along with Vespers by Ester Mägi, the former first lady of Estonian music who died in 2021 at the age of 99.
Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten opened the concert with the aethereal sound of bells, followed by the strings, very quiet and intent yet very present. The work, with its different lines moving at different speeds, uses a technique from Renaissance music yet the result feels modern and effortless, the continuous movement creating a single whole. The end, with its intimate decrescendo down to a single, everlasting chord, was magical.
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| Adam's Lament: Arvo Pärt at 90 - Maria Listra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste - Barbican Hall (Photo: Raigo Pajula / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir) |
The familiar was followed by the distinctly unfamiliar. L’abbé Agathon setting a French text from The Sayings of the Desert Fathers that tells the story of Agathon being tested by a leper who is revealed to be an angel. Originally written in 2004 for soprano and eight cellos, it was commissioned by l’Octuor de Violoncelles de Beauvais and is related to the moving story of the leper house of Saint Lazarus, the oldest leper hospital in northern Europe. It was performed at the Barbican in a version for soprano (Maria Listra) and string orchestra, though the opening section focused on the violas, cellos and basses with the work only bringing the violins in later.
The rich counterpoint of the lower strings contrasted with the poised elegance of Listra's performance., singing from memory. She prized line and expressivity over words, so we relied on the printed text for a sense of narrative. What she did do was combine her vocal performance with expressive movement, almost making a theatre piece. Concentrated and mysterious, this piece of physical theatre was mystical yet dramatic, with the focused thread of the voice over the elaborate string textures. And the ending, with its revelation of the angel's presence, was amazing, the voice quietly ascending to the stratosphere.
The first half ended with Adam's Lament, written in 2009 and setting a Russian text for choir and string orchestra. For this work, Pärt returned to the work of the monk Silouan the Athonite (1866–1938) whose work inspired Pärt's 1991 piece, Silouan's Song. Here he set text from Silouan's book, Staretz Silouan which narrates Adam's profound sorrow for betraying his Creator. Again, text and narrative were not the primary focus of the work, the choir sang in Russian and we had only the printed English text. What we did have though, was the remarkably focused spirituality of Pärt's music.
For all the richness of texture that Pärt created, the music had a certain austerity to it with the solid homophony of the choir contrasting to the dark toned, strongly characterful writing. In later moments the writing was often spare and haunting, with the central lament given to just the male chorus, largely unaccompanied. And then the choir on a monotone over excited strings, creating something rather trenchant, the steady tread of the chorus over vivid strings.
The remarkable thing about Pärt's music is the way it transcends his own, personal spirituality. Few in the audience would have much sympathy with the writings of a 19th century Russian Orthodox monk, yet Pärt's response created something palpably spiritual in this performance.
After the interval we turned to Ester Mägi who taught Arvo Pärt at Tallinn Conservatoire. Her Vesper was written in 1990 for violin and piano or organ but then reconceived in 1998 for string orchestra. The piece began with counterpoint, vivid yet serious and always warm. The music gave a sense of Mägi's character as it developed yet remained warmly engaging. A violin solo emerged out of a calm moment, yet the ending was by turns strong and gentle, but always with a feeling of counterpoint. There was, in fact, a sense of mid-Century about the piece, perhaps Mägi's debt to her earlier years.
Arvo Pärt's Fratres returned us to the more familiar. Here performed in the version for violin (soloist Harry Traksmann), string orchestra and percussion . The work is made up of a combination of just three elements, enormously clever and delighting in its sophisticated construction, yet like Thomas Tallis, Pärt wears this cleverness lightly and seduces us with the magic created from complex relationships. And here, the ending felt as if it could go on for ever.
We ended with Pärt's Te Deum written originally in 1985, and revised in 2007 uses three choirs (women's voices, men's voices and mixed choir) plus strings, prepared piano and wind harp, this latter coming over in the Barbican more as electronics.
The work opened by presenting three different elements - a quasi-chant from the men, string drones with what I perceived to be electronic white noise but which was the wind harp, and a chorus tinntinabuli version of the chant. Pärt developed this until we reached a moment of pure radiance, followed by complete contrast, an unaccompanied choral passage.
At the words 'Tu rex gloriae' the music became almost uncompromising, but for all the moments of excitement, Pärt kept drawing us back to the contemplative, to something concentrated, with a quiet ending that was compelling.
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| Adam's Lament: Arvo Pärt at 90 - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste - Barbican Hall (Photo: Raigo Pajula / Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir) |
For all the work's technical difficulties, the choir and orchestra made it seem effortless and natural, combining, focus, clarity and accuracy. Given the preponderance of public-facing settings of the Te Deum in British music from Purcell and Handel to Vaughan Williams and Walton, Pärt's response to the text, though large scale, was a remarkably intimate, personal affair.
We were treated to an encore, Pärt's Estonian Lullaby, written in 2002 for Jordi Savall for his ensemble, Hespèrion XXI, the song is based on a a folk song from Jõhvi.
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