Arvo Pärt: Credo

What is truth? The question, posed rhetorically by Pontius Pilate to Jesus, preoccupied Arvo Pärt long before his conversion to Orthodox Christianity in the early 1970s. The Estonian composer’s profound faith in God has informed answers reflected in his mature compositions. Paavo Järvi, who has known Pärt since childhood, offers a 90th-birthday tribute that encapsulates how that quest for spiritual understanding has played out in the man’s music. His choice of pieces includes Credo, a work of searing power and faith condemned by Soviet officials following its premiere in 1968. While more complex than Pärt’s later “tintinnabuli” compositions, its central message is simple: love one’s enemies. Järvi’s Estonian Festival Orchestra and a fine mixed chorus capture Credo’s shuddering contrasts of stillness and violence. The tracklist contains immaculate performances of Fratres and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, timeless Pärt classics, and the captivating Silhouette, a soaring evocation of the transparent structure of the Eiffel Tower. Most touching of all is the transition from the sublime conclusion of Credo, with its monumental chords and lingering echoes of J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C Major, to the haunting innocence of Estonian Lullaby.