Arvo Part, Creator Spiritus performed by Theater of Voices and Ars Nova Copenhagen conducted by Paul Hillier (Harmonia Mundi). Arvo Part “as a composer of chamber music, if we include in that category a few pieces for chamber choir” is how Paul Hillier, quite simply, explains his gorgeous new disc of music by the great mystic master from Estonia, one of the best known postmodern composers in the world. The major work on the disc is the “Stabat Mater” from 1985 for three singers and string trio, all of whom, as Hillier eloquently explains, have to understand that Part’s music “requires both intense feeling under a surface of stillness and the ability to emerge suddenly into the most violent declamation.” Other works include “Solfeggio” first composed in 1964 and the “Veni Creator” and “The Deer’s Cry” from 2006 and 2007, along with, most unusually for Part, a 2000 solo voice setting of Robert Burns’ “My Heart’s in the Highlands.” The sound of the uppermost voice in Hillier’s choirs—soprano Else Trop—is somewhere between celestial and astounding. 3 1/2 stars out of four