Arvo Pärt: Passio / TONUS PEREGRINUS new entry at No.2 in the UK Classical Chart No.1 in the BBC Music Magazine (June 2003) key recording (***) in latest Penguin Guide winner at the Cannes Classical Awards 2004 (Best 19th/20th-century Choral recording)...

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catalogue number: NAXOS 8.555860

"...Antony Pitts's Tonus Peregrinus deliver an elegantly agile and eloquent performance of depth and distinction..."
(Editor's Choice GRAMOPHONE April 2003)

" ...An ascetic spiritual journey, pared to the musical bone but extraordinarily powerful. Fine singing and first-rate sound.....Antony Pitts comes up trumps. His is an excellent reading, always alert to Pärt's shifting harmonic plane and with consistently fresh voices, the women especially.....Viewed overall, Tonus Peregrinus and Naxos have done Pärt proud. If this is your first Passio, rest assured that all the essentials are there..."
(Rob Cowan in GRAMOPHONE April 2003)

"Tonus Peregrinus give us a fantastic, pure sound – almost raw at times – but wonderfully emotive.....all in all this is a recording of which both the performers and Naxos can be proud. Stylish and authentic..."
(Pärt's publisher UNIVERSAL EDITION website)

"...reduced forces lend a clarity to the tutti sections that the Hilliard Ensemble's 1988 ECM recording notably lacks, while Robert Macdonald's tarred Jesus is simply stunning..."
(**** THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 9 March 2003)

"...Mark Anderson's more expressive tenor takes care of Pilate.....the Naxos disc should reward many buyers..."
(THE TIMES 4 March 2003)

"...Exquisitely sung.....this is your true ticket to rare oases of spiritual calm..."
(CD of the Week THE OBSERVER 2 March 2003)
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NAXOS RELEASE ARVO PÄRT'S PASSIO ON 03/03/03
"Arvo Pärt's music is a house on fire and an infinite calm. Pärt reaches beyond ordinary standards into a realm seldom explored. His music sings of beauty, pathos and incredible passion. It is a rare voice, much needed in an upside-down world." (Michael Stipe)
"This is very spare, pure music, distilled to essence without a wasted gesture."
"Now when I say silence I mean silence." (Arvo Pärt, 16 June 1997)

Naxos is delighted to announce the release, on 3 March 2003, of Arvo Pärt's powerful and mystical Passio (1982), performed by TONUS PEREGRINUS and directed by Antony Pitts.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is known to hundreds of thousands of classical record buyers throughout the world for his deeply spiritual compositions. His music has a simplicity and purity that sets him apart from nearly every other modern classical composer.

Passio - over an hour long - is a setting of the Passion text in Latin, and represent the summit of Pärt's early achievement with his new-found tintinnabuli style. Tintinnabuli is the name he gives to a technique that harnesses the acoustic power of the basic triad and the traditional modes and scales of early music. Using the most concentrated of musical means Pärt communicates the depth and universal spirituality of the Passion story - the betrayal, denial, trial and crucifixion of Jesus as told in John's Gospel.

The main narrative in Passio is given to an Evangelist Quartet, accompanied by violin, oboe, cello and bassoon. Jesus' words are set at a slower pace and sung by a bass continuously mirrored by the organ, while Pilate is sung by a tenor. All the other characters, including the crowd, are sung by the choir.

This performance of Passio is different to previous recordings in its approach to the pacing of the whole structure and in its fidelity to the rhythmic durations in the score. In particular, TONUS PEREGRINUS made the decision to be very precise in their reading of the pauses between the different sections. Pärt, after hearing the first edit of this recording, was inspired to clarify exactly what he meant by these pauses (some of which are very long), and his decisions are reflected in the final version. These subtle differences underline more than ever the heartrending and powerful force of this music, and in the resulting performance sound and silence hold equal weight, transporting the listener into a state of ecstatic wonderment.

The director of TONUS PEREGRINUS, Antony Pitts says "It was a privilege to record this radical late 20th-century masterpiece that manages to convey the truth and power of the ancient Christian Gospel story in a new and compelling way. On the surface the music seems to be contained within cloistered limits, but underneath there is an ocean of detail bathing each word in its own particular shades of colour."

TONUS PEREGRINUS have been making music since the foundation of the ensemble at New College, Oxford in 1990. Based on a core of eight young singers, their repertoire journeys from mediaeval polyphony via the English masters of the 16th and 17th Centuries to today's music, including many specially-written works by the ensemble's director Antony Pitts. It was a recording of Pitts's sacred choral music that led Klaus Heymann of Naxos to commission this new recording of Passio, as well as a forthcoming interpretation of the 14th-century Mass of Tournai. TONUS PEREGRINUS hope to reach a wide audience with this debut on Naxos and to bring this incredibly beautiful and emotive music to new and receptive ears across the world.

Anyone moved by the chart-topping monks singing Gregorian chant or by Henryk Gorecki's best-selling "Third Symphony" should sample this new recording. It is a quietly stunning performance, its solemnity and stark simplicity offering an oasis of calm in a restless world.