Arvo Pärt at 90 – Late Night @ The BBC Proms

The orgiastic orchestral opulence of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances had barely stopped resonating beyond the mushroom sound reflectors in the Royal Albert Hall, but the stage had been cleared of all but two rows of chairs, a bass drum, a gong and a single tubular bell and a chamber organ in readiness for the 27 listed singers of the estimable Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (seven apiece sopranos, altos and tenors; six basses), along with founder conductor (and now Artistic Director again) Tõnu Kaljuste.

In a 90^th birthday Arvo Pärt tribute (six weeks early – the actual birthday is on 11 September) and in a programme with the overall title Peace (nicely contrasted with the first work of the preceding orchestral concert – Elsa Barraine’s Second Symphony, entitled War), the goodly sized late-night audience were invited to collectively slow their breathing down for a 75 minutes of pure choral music, instilled with Pärt’s inner stillness. Of all eight programmed works by Pärt himself, all but one (The Deer’s Cry) was a first Proms performance and one of those seven was a UK premiere. And of the other four composers represented only the Rachmaninov’s sonorous Vespers’ excerpts had been heard at the Proms (not least by the choir itself in a 2008 Late Night, conducted by Paul Hillier). That also included the Bach Motet, Ich lasse dich nicht – only recently reattributed as echt Bach, having once been thought to be by Johann Christian.

The Peace theme bookended the concerto – with Da pacem Domine, overlapping words, gently sung, to start and, to end, the Lord’s Prayer in German as Vater unser, featuring soprano Yena Choi, for the third time. There were two English settings, The Deer’s Cry and his only English psalm setting, Peace upon you, Jerusalem, very much on message. Performed seamlessly with one work growing out of the last, notable was Yena Choi’s first solo in Veni creator.  The shifting and enigmatic harmonies of Magnificat featuring soprano Annika Löhmus, melted into The Deer’s Cry, telling a tale of St Patrick and originally premiered in St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, with its slow repetitions of ‘Christ With Me’and its variations. The first Pärt set ended with the UK premiere of Für Jan van Eyck, commissioned by the City of Ghent in 2020 to celebrate the painter of the newly restored altarpiece in St Bravo’s Cathedral, and using the Agnus Dei as its text, with organ accompaniment. 

New to me was Ukrainian-born composer (but Estonian resident) Galina Grigorjeva. Here Spring is Coming – with Yena Choi’s soprano line rising high over the chordal choral textures underneath – was beguiling, and a nice foil to the sonorous Rachmaninov (confusingly the programme titled the texts the wrong way round) – which in itself was a connection to the earlier Prom, as Rachmaninov alludes to his Vespers in his Symphonic Dances. The echt Bach motet, with its organ-accompanied lilt continued the central panel with a chorale palette so different to Pärt’s, which returned in Peace upon you, Jerusalem and the percussion-accompanied De Profundis, with Tõnu taking the tubular bell. 

Slightly moved from the original programme line-up, Pärt’s teacher Veljo Tormis’ Curse upon Iron is something of a calling card and party piece for the choir, taking its cue from the Kalevala and having a ritualistic form enhanced by the use of a shaman drum (here with gesticulations from Kaljuste) to urge both choir and the two male soloists on, tenor Toomas Tohert and bass Geir Luht, in their once-heard, never-forgotten ululations.

The change in order of programme allowed the concert to officially end with the Lord’s Prayer, with keyboard player Kadri Toomoja moving to the piano. The rapturous applause led the brief encore: Pärt’s Estonian Lullaby which peters unsteadily out on the piano into silence.