Pärt: Fratres

Arvo Pärt has made multiple versions of his 1977 piece Fratres, and it has been frequently used in film and documentary soundtracks. It makes a particularly powerful impact in this performance by violinist Tasmin Little and pianist Martin Roscoe. Little’s technical control keeps the hyperactive fast passages in clear focus, while Roscoe subtly distils a sense of trepidation underlying the chantlike piano chording. Equally striking is the Bournemouth Sinfonietta’s rapt performance of Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, its ghostly tolling bell enveloped in a tracery of multi-part string writing. Pärt’s Summa, Spiegel im Spiegel, Festina lente and Tabula Rasa are also included, making this album an excellent summation of the Estonian composer’s haunting idiom.