Arvo Pärt: Cantus In Memorian Of Benjamin Britten (Gennadi Roschdestwenski)

Arvo Pärt: "Cantus In Memorian Of Benjamin Britten" (1977)
Gespielt vom BBC Symphony Orchestra unter Gennadi Roschdestwenski (Britische Uraufführung)
Gesehen auf dem Fernsehsender arte am 19.06.2011 um 11:05 in "Klassikarchiv - Gennadi Roschdestwenski"
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Arvo Pärt: "Cantus In Memorian Of Benjamin Britten" (1977)
Played by BBC Symphony Orchestra with Gennadi Roschdestwenski (British premiere)
Seen on German-French TV-Channel arte (19.06.2011, 11:05 in "Klassikarchiv - Gennadi Roschdestwenski")

[@pierrelangedoc5292]

I don't think any piece conveys the POWER of music more than this one.So moving and profound.Thanks for posting.

[@POUSSIEREDECURIOSITE]

Celui qui a écrit cette oeuvre s'est totalement abandonné en sa sensibilité et sourtout en son génie. Dans l'univers si fort d'un état de pensée mélancolique, tel et par exemple un "Adagio pour cordes" d'un Samuel Barber, ici avec cette œuvre, on plonge au plus que tréfond des abysses les plus significatives de la sensibilité. Elle est travaillée justement et pertinemment avec une gamme descendante de la mineur, ajouté en une rythmique médiévale et surtout trochaïque - une longue suivie d'une brève - qui donne tant de force, d'incidence perceptive à son écoute. Ce discours sonore est en soi une absolue merveille en ce sens que dès lors que l'on s'y abandonne à, en, son écoute, cela en est comme si on était pris par le bras par une entité voulant nous entrainer en les merveilleux et si prégnants paysages de son monde...nous y abandonnant si corps, si âme, si sens !

[@hannawagenknecht6378]

So viel Schönheit,bei dieser Musik , großartig 😮

[@UtkuUtku-hk7jj]

Not slow not speed. This is it. Perfect tempo. 👍👏👏👏

[@a24-45]

I haven't heard the faster versions yet - but I must say I was totally immersed in this experience. I found the tension between the force for coherence and the force for disintegration agonising - I felt I was watching a loved one's losing battle to survive, their will to live flickering vainly as their life slowly, inevitably, slipped away before my eyes. Heartwrenching.

[@kaufman2000]

Absolutely agree, its glacial pace is devastating.

[@БорисКириллович-х6м]

Yes

[@simbrow3001]

Oh my word: you have no idea what you have written. You have absolutely nailed it. I have written else where on this but we just went exactly though this, and this piece was accidentally played at the funeral: it was brutal, absolutely brutal, and apropos.

[@marcellodantedealmeidanune9445]

Que regência extraordinária dessa obra, por Gennadi Roschdestwenski. Pragmática, discreta e sem a batuta. Só gestual com mãos e braços!!!! Maravilhoso!!!!

[@AwoLeunje]

Beautiful

[@Gleadless]

I don’t believe in a god a supernatural entity particularly in our world today but when I listen to this piece of music I can believe in humanities heaven

[@souffleart8104]

Thank you Roy. I have always loved this one, ever since I first heard it.

[@tangojeanneloftbordeaux8719]

Absolument magnifique

[@birdy26100]

Extraordinaire.

[@vincenzoveronesi7379]

Bella!! Bella!! Bellissima!! In my opinion this performance is excellent, perhaps the best one I so far heard!! I add that Tempo is perfect, at least this being my judgement [uselless to say that the world is so marvellous because the opinions nurtured in the heads of us, human beings, are so different]. I would like to express my wholehearted thanks to Mr. Burns for having posted a so extraordinaire page!

[@QuickMadeUpName]

Never have I heard a conductor whom exudes more warmth than Rozhdestvensky.

[@goingnowherefastman]

As always absolutely brilliant....

[@eugeniamendoza1365]

Muy bella!! Música para vivir y también para morir.,......

[@paolorosazzap.9471]

Fantastica opera commovente.

[@stephenhall3515]

There are some misunderstandings in the comments which I explain in my comments on Edward Gardner's version, also with the BBC SO but so many years later. Rozhdestvensky and the BBCSO play the 1977 version of Part's stunning masterwork, inclusive of a harp and differently laid out string orchestra with a different sonic weight distribution from the "final published" version. The " " marks are because Part frequently re-visits earlier music and 'Fratres' seems to be a permanently evolving series even now that the composer is 89. The initial version of 'Cantus...' was written for the speed GR takes here and allows for various motifs and harmonic devices used by Britten to heard without interfering with the canonical structure which is 'ruled' by harmonic and dynamic intensity. Note than the first notes of the harp are from Mahler's 9th symphony, the overall key location is akin to 'The Choirmaster's Burial' song from BB's 'Winter Words' song cycle and that Rozhdestvensky directs rather than conducts, somewhat like in the large vocal/choral traditions of Nordic countries and some Slavic ones. Anglo-American and central European traditions are different. The Mahler allusion is because the Austrian composer was a huge influence on Benjamin Britten's perception of sounds and informed his song cycle style (all sizes and types) for life. To be the director of this mighty piece makes sense as a complex team effort but Part is thought to have simplified it to make it accessible to more performers across the skill range. Someone in the comments states that the final bell chime is missing. It is indeed present but in C# to fit the harmony of the increasing dynamics of the low strings and is not left sustained. It is easy to miss in this somewhat ambient recording. The revised version is indeed quicker and the Britten allusions less obvious but the power of the music about final loss remains great either way. An excellent Norwegian rendition is more recent on KZbin and worth chasing up.

[@Sympathist]

This is very awesome, but there are newer events, where the Percussuinist does not sound late (due to old recording equipment, he had been great I believe) but check out Terje Tønnesen, Norway)

[@talvela100]

MERAVIGLIA

[@marcap1000]

Wonderful. Not an inch slower than it has to be, Fast and slow are nonsense here. Music flows into eternity, plenty of time for it.....

[@adrianadossantos2090]

👌👏👏👏

[@123must]

I do not agree ; the tempo is perfect ! Thanks a lot

[@davepowell7168]

Total agreement 👍

[@tonypatriarche3791]

Lots of feeling here, but very strangely he doesn't do Pärt's ending! It should end with a last chime, the strings sustain one last minim then tacent, and the chime rings on into silence. To me that's the most moving moment of the whole piece. He leaves out that last chime, unless it's so ppp I can't hear it-why? E.g., check the score at kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXrQfHWAZs-EnLc (Paavo Järvi). Incidentally, Järvi does take it almost 40% faster.

[@wolfvopo1502]

Good to have this, very good! For more pace who needs I would recommend Kristjan Järvi ‚s version but this might address different moods?! Let’s be serious also here how many versions are publically available here for some time!

[@cosmeamenta3474]

Casi parece obra de Samuel Barber...

[@federicocabitza4889]

I usually appreciate Roschdestwenski (e.g., Shostakovich!), but here I also think that such a purposely slow and limp interpretation eventually misses the potential to move listeners to a real experience of mute, blocking and powerless grief. Like in v=YUcazplAc58.

[@tanzend100]

A litten bitte to slow, and the Bass strings are to soft.

[@rdjazzboy1944]

The tempo is too slow... way too slow, Sad but not visceral enough, oh well.

[@srmelomano]

Gennady Rozhdestvensky totally missed the point on this one. It's way too slow! The composition, when played faster, is supposed to make you hear the crying of someone desperate by the loss of their loved one (the cadence of the high notes resembles the repeatedly outbursts of crying). Well, at least that's my interpretation of this piece.

[@JERUNION]

its way too slow . The composition ts more like the whole circle of life that ends so sudden. it misses the energy needed .