Arvopärt: Adams’ Lament

Latvian Radio Choir, Vox Clamantis, Sinfonietta Riga, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tõnu KaljusteECMNewSeries 476 4825 ***

Arvo Pärt has long had a fondness for rearranging his work. Eight of the nine pieces here (Beatus Petronius, Salve Regina, Statuit ei Dominus, Alleluia-Tropus, L'Abbé Agathon, Estonian Lullaby and Christmas Lullaby) are performed in enriched versions, all sounding soft-textured and alluring as their sounds linger in the gentle haze of the acoustic of Tallinn's Niguliste Church. The longest, most recent work, Adam's Lament (2009), sets words by the early 20th-century Orthodox monk Silouan of Mount Athos. Its typically rapt manner embraces, in a way unusual for Pärt, some moments that might have come from the 19th century. The two lullabies are real earworms. See url.ie/7ebo