Track Listing

1. Spiegel im Spiegel
2. F�r Alina
3. Spiegel im Spiegel
4. F�r Alina
5. Spiegel im Spiegel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1330 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .27 pounds
• Running time: 51 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 that ushered in his "tintinnabuli" style, that is, the bell-like, simple, no-notes-wasted method for which he has become beloved and famous. On this CD, pianist Alexander Malter plays it twice, as the second and fourth tracks; each iteration takes almost 11 minutes (Pärt assumed it would be embellished, and he chose this pair for the CD). There are minute variations in tempo, emphasis, and rubato from one to the other, but, all that being said, it amounts to 22 minutes of the most beautiful, contemplative music ever performed. Almost equally gentle is Spiegel im Spiegel , played as tracks 1, 3 and 5 and scored for piano and, respectively, violin, cello, and then violin again. The notes the instruments mirror one another (Spiegel is German for mirror), with notes added to the scale with each repetition, and so on. Almost impossible to describe in its loveliness, each of the three sets is beautiful; the cello in track 3 gives it extra mellowness. This is music staggering in its simple complexity and a treat for the ear and heart. --Robert Levine

Album Description
There have been other recordings of "Für Alina" and "Spiegel im Spiegel" but none like those on this disc, realized with the participation of the composer. Here Pärt, aided by exceptional interpreters, revisits those seminally important compositions which marked the birth of a new, "prismatic" period in his work, establishing a link between compositions embodying the fundamental traits of the "tintinnabuli style." Three interpretations of the duet 'Spiegel im Spiegel' (Mirror in the Mirror), for violin or cello and piano, become "formal pillars positioned before, between and after two solo renderings of 'Für Alina'", the latter performed with interpretive freedom by Alexander Malter.

Recorded 1995

Personnel:
Vladimir Spivakov (violin), Sergev Bezrodny (piano), Alexander Malter (piano), Dietmar Schwalke (cello)

Customer Reviews

Spellbinding simplicity
There are five tracks on this disc but in a sense only two pieces of music; but this is more than a smart piece of conmanship on the part of ECM. This is minimalist music and here the idea of a mirror comes into play. There are differences in the performance of each piece, each time it appears and given the relative simplicity of each piece the differences prove to be crucial. I am a Part fan but even by his standards this is distilled to the nth degree. The piano piece (Fur Alina) is seminal here, ushering in Part's obsession with bell-like sounds. The sheet music for the piece is baffling at first - it looks so spare, is technically so easy to play, but what does it mean? Listen to these performances and be spellbound. A seeming paucity of musical material does not lead to boredom. On the contrary I had to time the disc to ensure that it is the length stated on the cover. If you give yourself and your fullest attention to this music it becomes something of a meditation - certainly for me time both stands still and flashes by while listening to it. A superb disc with ECM's customary attention to detail both in terms of presentation and performance.

simply sublime
In the sleeve notes Part writes about his music being 'white' so that the listener can bring his own 'colours' to it. Exactly. The three versions of spiegel im spiegel are almost transcendental and they are very difficult to get out of your head after you've listened to them, and even then never completely. Norman Lebrecht, in the latest edition of his book on 20th century music, is so dismissive of the piece that one wonders if the man had his wits about him when he was listening to it. I do not understand why there aren't more opportunities to hear Part's stuff live. I once had the unexpected pleasure of hearing, at Southampton University's Turner Sims, a small string ensemble perform a piece which I had only previously heard with piano and violin. To hear a piece one knows and loves played ever so slightly differently is quite something, as this record perfectly demonstrates.

Simplicity defeats a giant.
I have always been one for Rachmaninov myself, but on hearing this delightful work, I think I may of changed my mind. You might even say that I had forgotten how beautiful simplicity could be, without ornamentation, without a lush embrace of a 20+ note chord (part dissonance, part assonance) filling space with a ring of grandeur. These 5 pieces each have their own grandeur, their own pride, which is realised through the sparcity of colour.

Do sit quietly and listen to this work. Listen to the silences, the breaths between the notes, the expression in the phrases. I am sure if you do, you will be rewarded with a pleasure which only good music can bring you.