Although PŠrt has become famous for his highly mystical, Christian works (characterized by long, slow harmonic structures creating a meditative mood), this style only emerged after he was exiled by the Soviet authorities to West Berlin. Before then, as an Estonian he was a Soviet citizen. He had strong avant garde leanings and composed this work with very involved polyphony involving a web of interlocking voices in close, dissonant counterpoint. How to get away with such disturbing and dissonant music in the face of a Communist Party doctrine that prescribed "Socialist optimism" as a style? Dedicated to the "victims of Fascism" and let the dissonance be a description of or emotional reaction to Hitler's crimes. The important thing is that there is only minimal similarity between this music (PŠrt's first orchestral score) and the more famous and popular works of a couple of decades later. ~ All Music Guide
