I'm an Arvo Part completist
Moses Alexander | Alabama, USA | 11/16/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I'm an Arvo Part completist...that's why I had to have this CD. The title is a bit misleading as the disc only have four works by Arvo Part on it (which I came to find out is his COMPLETE works for organ.) Additionally there are works by John Redford, William Byrd, and some anonymous pieces. Also intermingled are field recordings of church bells. Conceptually this is one of the coolest albums to come out in years. Its also nice to hear Part's (wish I had that umlaut on my computer) work juxtaposed against more "typical" organ works. Part's "Annum per Annum" is just tops. I literally couldn't believe an organ could make the sounds that are coming out of it. At times dissonant, but in a completely awesomea computeristic, locomotive kind of way. The piece then mellows out into what is tonal, but definately still modern music."Mein Weg Hat Gipfel und Wellentaler" is great as well...it sounds like a thinking man's Phillip Glass."Pari Intervallo" is quite a change from the dynamic thrusts of the other three Part pieces. A good bit more serene. Top notch though.While I'm not crazy about all of it, some of the other pieces are really great too, especially the anonymous and the Orgelbuch pieces. For this listener though, Part's pieces are definately the highlight, and the gorgeous recordings of church bells (which I could listen to endlessly.) To me, the disc is a bit of a let down because I was expecting the other composer's to be more complimentary to Part's. There's just too big a gap between them for this collection to have won me over. I think its totally worth it though for Part completists."