Reviewed by John Irvine

Regular readers of Cross Rhythms who have read the Living Composers series and who regularly scan the reviews pages for classical recordings will be more than familiar with the unique sound world of Estonian composer Arvo Part. Since 1976 Part has cultivated a compositional style incorporating bell-like tones and triads, simplicity and repetition, creating music which is superficially uneventful, but full of grace, truth, beauty, purity and light. Part's music is unavoidably devotional, even when instrumental and nonreligious. The works on this disc have all been recorded before - indeed several times in some cases - but the combination of Part's most popular and enduring works on a single disc is extremely compelling. To the best of my knowledge, this disc contains the only CD recording of "Spiegel Im Spiegel" and the second CD recording of "Tabula Rasa". Tasmin Little is one of the UK's finest young violinists and a rising star in the classical recording world. Her performance is nothing short of faultless. However, at points the accompanying Bournemouth Sinfonietta do not seem to fully pull their weight. For example, although this recording of "Tabula Rasa" is far superior to Kidran Kremner's 1976 recording on ECM Records (reviewed CR15), it is Kremner's performance which is the greater and the more enduring. Compare for yourself. For the person coming to Part's music for the first time, however, this has got to be the ideal starter disc.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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