Opera Today

Paul Hillier has written the book on Arvo P‰rt, quite literally. He has spent significant time with the Estonian composer interviewing him, working with him, and studying his music. He has not only authored the only text researching P‰rt’s music and background, but Hillier also seems to one of the first to perform and record his music, thereby exposing it to the general public.

Now this is one beautiful piece of music, a setting of the text of the ìSong of Songs,î taken from the Hebrew Bible by the composer Jorge Liderman. Liderman is Argentinian by birth, now on the composition faculty of the Department of Music at the University of California at Berkeley. His work shows a distinct ability at the craft of composition: this is a very attractively put together work.