Par PART ARVO. 'In principio' takes its words from the Gospel of John 1:1-14 and puts them into a five-movement form. This work, as in all of Pärt's music, is governed by a strict formal design, with the clarity of the musical structure corresponding to that of the Latin text. The first movement (vv. 1-5) and the fifth (v. 14) are limited to two opposing formal elements: a static, syllabically articulated A-minor chord, and its timbral and tonal opposite, a fanfare-like figure that expands with each new section, growing in loudness and returning to its beginning after traversing all twelve keys. The second movement (vv. 6-8), devoted to John the Baptist, is conceived as a powerfully moving single-voice monody. The central third movement (vv. 9-11) is not only the longest but the one whose message Pärt specially emphasised by repeating the words three times - something he had never done before in his vocal music. He evidently did so to send a signal directly to each and every one of us. The fourth movement (vv. 12-13) seems to begin ex nihilo, growing slowly but with an ineluctable pulse in a mighty procession. The fifth movement (v. 14) constitutes, in combination with the first, the formal and expressive frame of the composition, albeit in mirror reflection. If the chorus in the first movement statically pulsates while the orchestra proceeds dynamically through the circle of keys, these roles are reversed in the fifth movement. Thus, the expanding thrust given to the orchestra in the opening movement is now focused entirely on the text of the chorus. (Wolfgang Sander, translation by J. Bradford Robinson)/ Répertoire / Chœur Mixte [SATB] et Orchestre

Symphonie der Tausend. Par MAHLER GUSTAV. All my earlier symphonies are mere preludes to this one. In the other works everything is subjective tragedy, - this one is a huge giver of joy.' (Gustav Mahler) Gustav Mahler's 'Symphony No. 8' is a work of exceptions. Seen from the outside, this is true of the forces that are used: with its three choirs, eight soloists and an orchestra of far more than one hundred musicians, there are few similar works in the annals of music. This cast of performers determines the second exceptional element of the work, the mix of instrumental and vocal characteristics that makes it to the prototype of a 'vocal symphony', which - as Mahler put it - 'is sung from beginning to end'. In turn, the texts that are sung influence the structure of the whole, replacing, as it were, the usual four movements of a symphony with two strongly divergent 'parts'. And, finally, as if to emphasize this divergence, the texts used - the hymn 'Veni creator spiritus' in the first part and the final scene of Goethe's Faust in the second - are not only written in two languages but also separated in their origins by more than one thousand years. Thus it is a work of extremes, and a work of contradiction. It seems, however, that it was exactly these distinctive features that lifted the symphony above the others and convinced Mahler that his 'Symphony No. 8' was 'the greatest' work 'that I have composed'./ Répertoire / Chœur Mixte [SATB] et Orchestre