Estonia’s Classical Radio created a survey to find out which is the favorite Estonian classical album. Four albums by Maestro Arvo Pärt made it to top ten.
Pärt’s masterpiece “Tabula Rasa”, originally written in 1977, but released in 1984 under the German ECM Label, won the listeners hearts. The ECM’s version includes some of Pärt’s most distinguished works, such as "Fratres", "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" and "Tabula Rasa" itself consisting of two movements, "Ludus" and "Silentium".
“Tabula Rasa” was Pärt’s first record released abroad after he fled Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1980, and moved to Vienna with his family. The story goes that Manfred Eicher, ECM’s founder, first heard “Tabula Rasa” on the radio while driving in Armenia, several years before ECM released it. Eicher was so taken aback by what he heard that he pulled his car over and wondered how to get in touch with the composer; eventually he tracked him down in Vienna and the rest is history.
Another story, released by the American press, which has been cited on many occasions, tells of a journalist seeing young men dying of AIDS in a refugee center, who were listening to Pärt’s “Tabula Rasa” over and over.
Pärt wrote "Tabula Rasa" after a period of self-searching, which lasted eight years, from 1968 - 1976. During this time, he developed his renowned tintinnabuli style of composition, out of which "Fratres" was the first new work to emerge.
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