{"id":53932,"date":"2021-10-04T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T18:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/records\/helsinki-chamber-choir-nils-schweckendiek-part-passio\/"},"modified":"2021-10-06T14:02:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T18:02:33","slug":"helsinki-chamber-choir-nils-schweckendiek-part-passio","status":"publish","type":"records","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/records\/helsinki-chamber-choir-nils-schweckendiek-part-passio\/","title":{"rendered":"Helsinki Chamber Choir \/ Nils Schweckendiek – P\u00e4rt: Passio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A black-and-white picture showing a T-shaped piece of wood, coarsely planed (a realistic choice, since the mechanical wood planer would not be invented for another nineteen centuries), on which hangs a hemp rope. It could be the torso and the arm\u2013or the wing\u2013of some headless angelic figure. Or it could be a cross, which would be fitting since our subject here is the passion of Christ. The image is stunning, and the text reads P\u00c4RT PASSIO – Helsinki Chamber Choir – Nils Schweckendiek<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long time ago it was customary to recount the Passion of Jesus in plainchant during Holy Week, following the story told by the four evangelists. Composers refined the tradition by creating different settings for the Passion, modifying its structure and incorporating choirs and instrumental parts. Now let us teleport ourselves to the early 1980s, in Vienna then Berlin, where Estonian composer Arvo P\u00e4rt settled. P\u00e4rt was probably more than fed up with the Soviet authorities; he had notably incurred their wrath a dozen years before when he wrote \u201cI believe in Jesus Christ\u201d in his \u201cCredo\u201d. It\u2019s worth pointing out that to this day, notwithstanding his appearance comparable to a Lutheran minister from the second half of the 19th century, P\u00e4rt remains the most revered contemporary composer, among exegetes and music buffs of all tendencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arvo P\u00e4rt had brought with him sketches of his own setting of the Passion of Christ , according to the gospel of John. The composition was completed in 1982. P\u00e4rt largely used the diaphonic technique he created and called \u201ctintinnabuli\u201d, where two notes become a single one (\u201cOne plus one, it is one\u2013it is not two\u201d, the composer would say). The opus was recorded for the first time in 1988 and published by the ECM label, to which P\u00e4rt was linked. The honour fell to the Hilliard Ensemble, led by Paul Hillier. It is, at least for the music lover expressing his view here, the driest of the four versions recorded so far. The following one, a bit meatier, was performed by the British ensemble Tonus Peregrinus led by Antony Pitts (Naxos, 2003). Candomino, a Finnish youth choir led by Tauno Satomaa, also did a version (Elatus, 2006).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nils Schweckendiek, artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir, was at the stand during this recording at St. Paul\u2019s Church in Finland\u2019s capital. Schweckendiek, trained at Clare College in Cambridge, has been the choir\u2019s director since 2007. His reputation as an international promoter of contemporary music is beyond reproach. Hence, the result is more than convincing, P\u00e4rt\u2019s opus is more meditative than ever. The violins, cello, oboe and bassoon harmonize in a quasi-supernatural way with the voices of the soloists and choir singers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No need to specify that such music must not be the churchy people\u2019s prerogative. Listening to this Passion according to P\u00e4rt might prompt a bout of mysticism in even the ungodliest music lovers. Holy moly, that\u2019s good music, one might exclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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