アルヴォ・ペルト: スターバト・マーテル

純な美しさが絶品!
豪華歌手陣による最新のペルト

ペルトの作品は世界的な名手たちにより演奏、録音されていますが、またひとつ超豪華な演奏陣によるアルバムの登場です。ペルトのピュアな美をアンドレアス・ショルの美声で楽しめるのも格別ですが、人気急上昇のポーランドのソプラノ、アレクサンドラ・クジャクと現在の夫君ロベルト・アラーニャと「スターバト・マーテル」に挑戦しているのに驚き。
ペルトの「スターバト・マーテル」はカウンターテナー、ソプラノ、テノールの弦楽三重奏のために書かれていますが、ここではモーフィング室内管弦楽団リーダーのヴァブニツによる弦楽オーケストラ版による豊かな響きで披露。心洗われるひとときを体験できます。
他もショルによるペルトの透明かつ静寂な4篇が収められ、現代でありながら中世のような音世界が広がります。名録音で知られるリトル・トリベカが繊細な息遣いまで再現。酷暑の清涼な気持ちにさせてくれます。
キングインターナショナル

Some of the Arvo Part pieces on this richly recorded Little Tribeca release are among the worlds most popular pieces of contemporary classical music and have been recorded many times, but the Morphing Chamber Orchestra -- the name indeed seems to mean "thing that morphs" -- has something to say about almost every one of them. The big draw, perhaps, is the presence of a trio of powerhouse vocal soloists, namely countertenor Andreas Scholl, tenor Roberto Alagna, and the slightly less familiar but wonderful soprano Aleksandra Kurzak. Scholl is deployed as soloist in several pieces, and some of these were written for other voices: a boy soprano, an alto, or a tenor, but here and elsewhere, it is hard to take issue with the tinkering with Parts musical texts, given how much of such tinkering he himself did. The biggest alteration comes in the much-recorded Stabat mater of 1985, where conductor Tomasz Wabnic adds a full string orchestra to the work, originally for three voices and string trio. The singers are deployed in full operatic splendor. Whether this is in keeping with what Part intended might be debated, but it is electrifying. The countertenor arrangement of Ein Wallfahrtslied, originally for tenor or baritone and string quartet or string orchestra, is also Wabnics work. Scholl sounds great as he enters the second half of his sixth decade; if his voice does not have quite the ease it once did, it nevertheless retains the mysterious multiplicity of shades that have made him so popular over the years. Those shades also equip him admirably for Parts music. There are also instrumental pieces, including the famed Spiegel im Spiegel ("Mirror in the Mirror"), with orchestra members delivering admirably precise, resonating performances. Nothing here is less than fresh, and even longtime Part fans will be intrigued by the new ways his music can sound. ~ James Manheim