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Track Listings
| 1. Spiegel im Spiegel |
| 2. Fur Alina |
| 3. Spiegel im Spiegel |
| 4. Fur Alina |
| 5. Spiegel im Spiegel |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 that ushered in his "tintinnabuli" style, that is, the bell-like, simple, no-notes-wasted method for which he has become beloved and famous. On this CD, pianist Alexander Malter plays it twice, as the second and fourth tracks; each iteration takes almost 11 minutes (Pärt assumed it would be embellished, and he chose this pair for the CD). There are minute variations in tempo, emphasis, and rubato from one to the other, but, all that being said, it amounts to 22 minutes of the most beautiful, contemplative music ever performed. Almost equally gentle is Spiegel im Spiegel , played as tracks 1, 3 and 5 and scored for piano and, respectively, violin, cello, and then violin again. The notes the instruments mirror one another (Spiegel is German for mirror), with notes added to the scale with each repetition, and so on. Almost impossible to describe in its loveliness, each of the three sets is beautiful; the cello in track 3 gives it extra mellowness. This is music staggering in its simple complexity and a treat for the ear and heart. --Robert Levine
CD Description
There have been other recordings of "Fur Alina" and "Spiegel im Spiegel" but none like those on this disc, realized with the participation of the composer. Here Pärt, aided by exceptional interpreters, revisits those seminally important compositions which marked the birth of a new, "prismatic" period in his work, establishing a link between compositions embodying the fundamental traits of the "tintinnabuli style." Three interpretations of the duet 'Spiegel im Spiegel' (Mirror in the Mirror), for violin or cello and piano, become "formal pillars positioned before, between and after two solo renderings of 'Fur Alina'", the latter performed with interpretive freedom by Alexander Malter. Recorded 1995 Personnel: Vladimir Spivakov (violin), Sergev Bezrodny (piano), Alexander Malter (piano), Dietmar Schwalke (cello)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are five tracks on this disc but in a sense only two pieces of music; but this is more than a smart piece of conmanship on the part of ECM. This is minimalist music and here the idea of a mirror comes into play. There are differences in the performance of each piece, each time it appears and given the relative simplicity of each piece the differences prove to be crucial. I am a Part fan but even by his standards this is distilled to the nth degree. The piano piece (Fur Alina) is seminal here, ushering in Part's obsession with bell-like sounds. The sheet music for the piece is baffling at first - it looks so spare, is technically so easy to play, but what does it mean? Listen to these performances and be spellbound. A seeming paucity of musical material does not lead to boredom. On the contrary I had to time the disc to ensure that it is the length stated on the cover. If you give yourself and your fullest attention to this music it becomes something of a meditation - certainly for me time both stands still and flashes by while listening to it. A superb disc with ECM's customary attention to detail both in terms of presentation and performance.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
In the sleeve notes Part writes about his music being 'white' so that the listener can bring his own 'colours' to it. Exactly. The three versions of spiegel im spiegel are almost transcendental and they are very difficult to get out of your head after you've listened to them, and even then never completely. Norman Lebrecht, in the latest edition of his book on 20th century music, is so dismissive of the piece that one wonders if the man had his wits about him when he was listening to it. I do not understand why there aren't more opportunities to hear Part's stuff live. I once had the unexpected pleasure of hearing, at Southampton University's Turner Sims, a small string ensemble perform a piece which I had only previously heard with piano and violin. To hear a piece one knows and loves played ever so slightly differently is quite something, as this record perfectly demonstrates.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have always been one for Rachmaninov myself, but on hearing this delightful work, I think I may of changed my mind. You might even say that I had forgotten how beautiful simplicity could be, without ornamentation, without a lush embrace of a 20+ note chord (part dissonance, part assonance) filling space with a ring of grandeur. These 5 pieces each have their own grandeur, their own pride, which is realised through the sparcity of colour.
Do sit quietly and listen to this work. Listen to the silences, the breaths between the notes, the expression in the phrases. I am sure if you do, you will be rewarded with a pleasure which only good music can bring you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Peaceful
A calm and meditative sound contained within a 'programme' that is unusual and effective. This recording is for unhurried listening.
Published 7 months ago by RobW
"And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started...
How can something so slow and so outrageously simple be so profound? If you sit down and break apart Spiegel im Spiegel note by note, it is seemingly nothing, a repetition over and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Resonates with the soul
I suspect that the reason so many people find this simple music has a magical effect on them is that it perfectly resonates with that still centre of self that we barely recognise... Read more
Published 23 months ago by SH_
Sublime
This wonderful recording ranked 2nd only to Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert in a review of the ECM label in January's issue of Mojo. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by Neal Stride
minimalist beauty
I've listened to many of the Arvo Part CDs, and have to say I don't take to his orchestral and/or choral works .... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2009 by Mr. K. Hubbard
The ground; the sky.
The last CD I bought by Arvo Pärt was the recording of his Kanon Pokajanen (the Canon of Repentance), which is a very long piece of music concerned with transformation. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2009 by Mr. R. Moss
Nice Pair Of Ditties
Just the two. Well rounded & perfectly formed. No frilly bits. No padding. mmmmm.... Lovely.
Published on 14 Jan 2009 by Sheldon Kopp
The prism of the spirit
Arvo Pärt is one of those rare contemporary composers whose works are immediately accessible and (probably for the same reason) whose output manages to attract the kind of... Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2008 by Jon Chambers
Simply perfect
If someone was to ask me to go through my music collection and pick out the perfect piece of music, Alina would be it. Read more
Published on 5 April 2008 by G. TOZER
Beyond the soul
Pärt´s music penetrates to the world of aesthetic and spiritual beauty. The apparent simplicity of the composition allows the mind and the soul to hear and experience the... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2006
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