Arvo Pärt – Alina (ECM)

Arvo Pärt’s Alina brings together two pieces that helped define the composer’s mature voice: Für Alina, written in 1976, and Spiegel im Spiegel. Recorded in July 1995 at Frankfurt’s Festeburgkirche with violinist Vladimir Spivakov, cellist Dietmar Schwalke, and pianists Alexander Malter and Sergej Bezrodny, the album holds a distinctive place in both Pärt’s discography and ECM’s New Series catalogue. For listeners coming to Pärt through later choral or orchestral works, this is a direct route back to the quiet source.

The focus is deliberately narrow, and that is the point. Für Alina is presented as the breakthrough work that symbolically opened the path to the music that followed, while Spiegel im Spiegel appears in both violin-and-piano and cello-and-piano versions, letting you hear how Pärt’s spare materials change shape with different voices. The performances are attentive rather than demonstrative, giving the music’s stillness real weight instead of turning it into atmosphere.

This 2026 LP is notable because it marks the album’s first appearance on vinyl. That makes sense for a recording so centred on space, resonance, and close listening: music that asks you to follow its flow patiently, and rewards that patience with unusual clarity.

Features

• First time on vinyl
• Cardboard single-pocket jacket
• Includes 4-page insert with liner notes by Hermann Conen