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Alina - Arvo Pärt
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028944995824
Label: Ecm Records
Manufacturer: Ecm Records
MPN: 449958
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Ecm Records
Release Date: February 01, 2000
Studio: Ecm Records
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Editorial Review:
Arvo Pärt's Alina follows a simple-enough formula. Two stark instrumental works from the master of holy minimalism repeat each other, each time slightly different. But the blissful results--quiet, haunting, and thoroughly hypnotizing--meld to create one of classical music's best albums of 2000. It's as intense and sublime as contemporary classical music can be. --Jason Verlinde
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 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Music to absorb
This review will be in fragments, as this is how thoughts come to me when listening to this remarkable CD. As I type this, I am listening to it on my iPod, where you can hear the breathing of the musicians, the gentle scratch of the bow on the strings. It is an intimate experience.
The deeply impactful movie "Wit" uses parts of Mirror in Mirror in the soundtrack, and that was our introduction to this music. The search ensued, the CD purchased, and it is one of the gems in our large ... Read More
Rating:  - Serenity
This collection of Arvo Part pieces is amazingly peaceful and serene. This is an excellent CD to relax with after a stressful day, or to play during periods of stress. It makes great background music whenever you need to de-stress. The ultimate simplicity of Arvo Part's compositional style is exemplified in this CD, which utilizes repetition of the same pieces in different arrangements by different performers, all to a wonderful effect!
Rating: - Listen, this could change your life.
This is such a thing of beauty, I cannot say much other than this. Prepare a space, and a time. Sit quietly and listen to this. You may cry, you may sing, but one thing is certain, you will not be unmoved.
Rating: - Be With Me Now
It is a curious thing, change is. You can find this particular occurrence in other people, if it's an old friend you haven't seen in a while. Especially can you see it in the books you read, or the music you listen; the films you let into your life. In other words, it's about seeing with new eyes: it has got to do with the peculiar process of growing up.
But an album full of music has a life of its own, and we are merely passers-by, constantly adrift, clinging only to the smiles of ... Read More
Rating: - hauntingly beautiful
Haunting, relaxing beautiful music from Arvo Part. Reduce stress levels in the car or at home, by allowing this music to envelop and lift you with its rise and fall in emotion and melody
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