As published in the Chicago Tribune in its September 30 2005 edition :
In Honor of Arvo Pärt’s 70th birthday this month, Ideale Audience has released the first authorized documentary, assembled (in 2002) by a trusted friend who filmed over a period of five years. The approach is rather like Francois Gerard’s 1993 Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, insofar as a portrait is eventually created through a number of brief fragments. This time, however, there are no strands of narrative, actors or interviewees. The enigmatic Estonian composer-who doesn’t give interviews- is simply shown at home and at work with various performers, occasionally reminiscing. Nothing of great moments occurs in any of the vignettes, yet each reveals something of Pärt’s turn of mind, which illuminates his haunting, inimitable, music. Because of the music, he has been called a mystic and this reportedly has amused him. Here his humor is as evident as his concentration and the picture is of a child/man possessed by music, though not desiring to create anything like what came before him. He speaks of that condition softly, sometimes with a choice of words appropriate to parables. The snatches of his scores, which rarely are absent from the soundtrack, indicate that no other composer today is capable of such heart-easing simplicity. Three shorter films by Supin-in essence, outtakes from the documentary-swell the program to 178 minutes, all recommendable for anyone interested in approaching one of the most generous creative spirits of our time.
Alan G. Artner
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