Solo in Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 3

A
AtomicClock
Posts: 1094
Joined: Oct 19, 2023

by AtomicClock »

I had the pleasure of playing Pärt #3 several years ago. It really got me into his music.

The piece has a nice trombone solo towards the end:

<YOUTUBE id="-raHBFcsd2E" t="1117">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-raHBFcsd2E&t=1117s</YOUTUBE>

In this recording, the trombonist (or conductor?) messes with the time. The unaccompanied measures are taken twice as fast as the accompanied ones.

<YOUTUBE id="QjyQYwLNCNA" t="1422">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyQYwLNCNA&t=1422s</YOUTUBE>

What's going on here? Is there an interesting bit of Estonian performance practice to be learned? Does Neeme Järvi just dislike long tones?