Pärt: Mozart-Adagio (for Violin, Cello & Piano)

Description

Arvo Pärt's Mozart-Adagio (1992) for violin, cello and piano was composed for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio on commission by the Helsinki Festival, where it was premiered. The piece is in memory of Oleg Kagan, who was a friend of Arvo Pärt's and one of Russia's leading violinists. Kagan had a special affinity with the music of Mozart and the composer memorialises the violinist by transcribing one of the most affecting movements of the youthful composer's piano sonatas, the Adagio from the Sonata in F Major, K. 280. Arvo Pärt's Mozart-Adagio is neither an arrangement nor a collage. Pärt's approach to the original work is not a playful one (as it was with his Bach-inspired piece Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte) - rather, it is cautious and respectful. Aspects of Mozart's composition and Pärt's Tintinnabuli style are in balance so that there emerges a spiritual encounter between the 18th and 20th centuries.