Arvo Pärt: Da Pacem
Paul Hillier directing the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ


Count this among your blessings this Thanksgiving: Paul Hillier is still roaming the Earth. Better yet, he's recording. Let joy be unconfined!

If you haven't heard of Hillier, he's built up his career from his days with the choir at St. Paul's Cathedral in London to his current role as conductor/director/writer/baritone -- You knew I would work the baritone angle in there somewhere, didn't you? -- spending much of the recent past directing critically acclaimed choral ensembles, including the Hilliard Ensemble, Theater of Voices, and His Majestie's Clerkes. His credits, too numerous to list here, comprise compositions stretching across a millennium of glorious music. (Photo Credit: Benjamin Ealovega)

Two of my special favorites are Mr. Hillier's recordings of British and early American songs of prayer and praise: William Billings: A Land of Pure Delight and Goostly Psalmes: Anglo-American Psalmody 1550-1800, which are now available through Harmonia Mundi's splendid budget series and identified simply as Early American Choral Music, Vol. I and Vol. II. Both were made with His Majestie's Clerkes, featured on NPR, and beloved of a number of our Bethesda Olsson's customers and staff back in the day.

You'll notice that the above listings belong to a particular spiritual heritage. Though I don't wish to create the impression that Hillier eschews secular material, much of his finest work springs from the music of the Christian faith, notably that of the Orthodox tradition.

In that area, Hillier has often turned to the great Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. This new recording, Da Pacem, showcases short spiritually themed works, prayers of supplication, worship, and trust. Texts are drawn from sources ranging from the Psalms to the Magnificat to one of John Henry Newman's sermons, "Littlemore Tractus":

May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done! Then in his mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.

The album includes Part's "Two Slavic Psalms," settings of Psalm 117 and Psalm 131. The first is a song of praise; the second, a meditation on trust in God. The straightforward joy of the one gives over to the serenity and simplicity of the other.

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, whose repertoire possesses amazing breadth, work a particular magic with Part's minimalist approach. There is purity yet subtle texture in the presentation, giving the listener something to reach for and respond to.

In a later blog, I'll happily discuss Hillier's latest offering for the Christmas season, A New Joy, a disc of Estonian, Russian, and Ukrainian music of the season -- another offering from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and truly something to make your heart soar.

Wishing you peace and a very happy Thanksgiving.