Holy Minimalism At Its' Most Effecting

I have several disks featuring the music of Arvo Part, three of which find to be wonderful, while the others I can have more of a take it or leave it approach to, having been tempted to invest after enjoying the three "goodies" so much. This disk is one of the three that I fully appreciate. Entitled Miserere and performed by the Hilliard Ensemble and the Orchester Der Beethovenhalle Bonn conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, it has three pieces featured with the title track being the longest. It is in the tintinnabuli style but the inclusion of instrumental contributions between and within the slowly unfolding vocal lines adds welcome colour and depth. The use of carefully spaced silences, as in another of his Easter settings Passio, is particularly effective. There is then a short adagio for strings and harp called Festina Lente, with divided musical resources it is a kind of canon based around certain numerological considerations. The disk ends with Sarah was Ninety Years Old ( one of the more curious Old Testament passages ) a very sparse work wrrittn for three vocal soloists, organ and percussion with the latter very much to the fore but in a very restrained and regimented way, with no hint of improvisation, just providing a steady unravelling pulse that is most effective.