The NAXOS label is a groundbreaking outfit in many ways. Perceived by many as merely a budget label, thanks to its affordable pricing, NAXOS is much more than that. The label consistently releases material that it has tracked down from dusty archives, as well as reissuing classics and remastering old recordings to be heard in our digital world. NAXOS also has the courage to think outside the box, if you will, with many of its issues.

One can consider their recent 2-CD release, Arvo Pärt: A Portrait (NAXOS 8.558182-83) to be such a bold move. This box set is something akin to a greatest hits compilation or, as NAXOS would have the consumer see it, an overview or significant highlights of a composer's career. While there is hardly an Estonian anywhere, nor a serious classical music lover out there unaware of Pärt's genius, this release is quite evidently not aimed at them. Rather, this compilation complements the existing discography. The performances/excerpts found here by various artists and orchestras, choirs may provide incentive for newcomers to the classical music world to seek out the entire work.

Coinciding with Pärt's 70th birthday, celebrated in September and marked internationally with concerts honouring the ascetic composer, this collection effectively tracks Pärt's creative life from Soviet Estonia to asylum and full artistic freedom in the West, touching on the various influences that religion provides. Pärt's conversion from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy has been well documented; his work seen as a reaction to the state-imposed atheism of the Soviet system. This collection reflects experiments - among others - with Serialism and Minimalism, and provides fine examples of the tintinnabular form he has made his own. The listener is provided with a sweeping portrait indeed - solo piano, a cappella and full orchestra performances are to be found here.

Of considerable value is the lengthy booklet that comes with this box set. Calling Nick Kimberley's splendid insights liner notes is doing him a disservice. The booklet is more than 60 pages long, long enough to qualify as perhaps the précis for a dissertation, monograph or maybe even the corner stone for a definitive biography of this mystical composer.

The universal appeal of Arvo Pärt's music is certainly well captured on this splendid overview. As with all NAXOS efforts, the sound is faultless and the technical values superb. With Christmas on the horizon, this very affordable paean to perhaps the most influential composer of the post WWII years deserves consideration as both a present to those outside the Estonian community as well as complementing an already existing Pärt collection. It is available at Toronto area fine record stores.

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