European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 4 Los Angeles on Wordless Music Series

May. 04, 2009

Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 4 Los Angeles, the first symphony by the composer in over 30 years, sees its New York Premiere performed by the Wordless Music Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky on Friday, May 8. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Esa-Pekka Salonen's final season as Music Director, the symphony saw its world premiere last January in Los Angeles. Because of the composer's adherence to the Tintinnabuli style, following his Symphony No. 3 of 1973 none of his orchestral works could be considered a symphony despite their structure and scope. Thus Los Angeles marks a turning point in the composer's career as he adopts his preferred instrumental forces of the Tintinnabuli style - strings with percussion - in symphonic form. John Henken annotates:

In texture and spirit the new symphony is very much in full tintinnabulation mode. The materials are no longer quite so simple, however. Part has always loved suspensions, hanging a tone from one chord over into another, and now his chords sometimes approach the richness of added-note jazz harmonies and the slender, often ineffably poignant modal tunes are chromatically bent. There are still clear tonal centers, but often smudged, like the final pages of this symphony, with half the orchestra in A major and the other half in A minor.

Dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil magnate controversially imprisoned in Russia, Los Angeles sees its New York premiere on May 8 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture with follow up performances on May 9 and 10 at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

Learn more on the music of Arvo Pärt at www.universaledition.com and www.arvopart.info.

Listen to samples of Arvo Pärt's music at www.last.fm.

For detailed information on the Wordless Music Series, go to www.wordlessmusic.org.

Arvo Pärt
Symphony No. 4 (2009)
Los Angeles
for string orchestra, harp, timpani and percussion
34'

News