Edition for piano trio, score and parts (violin, cello, piano).
Arvo Pärt's Mozart-Adagio (1992) 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 (Art. Nr. : 951716).
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.
To the original,
the composer adds a modest introduction, interlude, and coda, as well as
a restrained and ongoing 'commentary'. The introductory and concluding
frame consists of the simplest material – cello and violin playing
discrete single notes in a 'humble' duet of seconds and thirds. For the
'commentary', the composer takes the interval of Mozart's preoccupation
in this movement, the minor second and peppers the texture with this
dissonant sonority. In lamenting the loss of a friend, Arvo Pärt seems
to take the dissonance that Mozart uses so sparingly and makes this
symbol of sorrow permeate, inescapably, the entire piece.
Publisher: Universal Edition UE30456.