Previous pieces, such as Summa and Für Alina, were typically written for SATB choir or a smaller number of instruments.
At the time, Pӓrt was working on Kanon Pokajanen, a choral piece based on an ancient Russian Orthodox canon containing a prayer to a guardian angel.
A note in the score indicates: "Pӓrt was further inspired to take the commission by the idea of seeing this work performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, one of the best orchestras in the world, under its music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, and in Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the most exciting concert buildings of our time.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic also played its East Coast premiere on 8 May 2010 at the Society for Ethical Culture Concert Hall in New York City.
The UK premier on 20 August 2010, at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, was given by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The symphony is dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil executive and Russia's most politically active oligarch who was accused of and currently imprisoned for fraud.
This angered Putin, who struck an implicit deal with the oligarchs of Russia to stay clear of politics.
Critics and bloggers have described Pärt's work as "hauntingly beautiful",[3] "other-worldly", and "a rare achievement".
Some would describe this work as Pärt coming full circle in his composition, tying the loose ends created through serialism in his last symphony.
5:4 blog remarks, "it's a peculiar & frustrating work, burning with earnest desires but seemingly incapable (unwilling?)
In general, it is slow-moving and solemn, keeping to the mystical mood of his works from recent decades, and has been described as "a mournful, introspective lament".
[7] The piece blends tolling bells, sustained chords, and lengthy pauses as an observance of silence and the resonance created by bell-like sounds.
Strings often play in high registers, a technique Pärt often uses to evoke the sound and sonority of bells.
[clarification needed] The section consists of a series of suspensions, where the T voices provide the resolutions, and as a whole, is a gradual descent of five octaves, beginning on an E Major chord that seems almost too high for the human ear, and ending on one that's almost too low to be audible.
Movement II begins in the tonic this time, but key areas and tonality are more difficult to distinguish due to added dissonances.
The low registered, somber and grounded march turns twisted and desperate as it climbs higher in pitch.
The piece ends with a very decided bell toll in A minor, as if to remind us of the sound that inspired the entire work.
Of this, Pӓrt explains, "To my mind, the two works form a stylistic unity and they belong together in a way...I wanted to give the words an opportunity to choose their own sound.
The result, which even caught me by surprise was a piece wholly pervaded by this special Slavonic diction found only in church texts.
"[2] The symphony is filled with the characteristics of chant, in its modality, phrasing, repetitions and alternations, the responses of voices to one another, and the use of percussion as the sounds of bells and clangs, which are associated with the ritual signals of the Orthodox Church.