Par PART ARVO. Fratres (original setting for violin and piano) was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and premiered on August 17th, 1980 at that very place (violin: Gidon Kremer, piano: Elena Kremer). Composed in Pärt's very own 'Tintinnabuli'-style, this piece allows many different settings because it is not bound to a specific tone color. 'The highest virtue of music, for me, lies outside of …

Par PART ARVO. / Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par PART ARVO. 'I have developed a highly formalised compositional system, which I have been using to write my music for twenty years. Summa is the most strict and enigmatic work in this series', said Arvo Pärt in 1994. The neutral title itself embodies the essence of the content as the work is based on the text of the Latin Credo. The great simplicity of the piece masks its complexity. The underl…

Par PART ARVO. Following an initiative by Princess Caroline of Monaco/Hannover to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the reign of his Highness, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, composer Arvo Pärt was commissioned to compose a work for choir and orchestra. The finished work, Cantique des degrés, received its premiere on 19 November 1999 during a special service in the Cathedral of Monte-Carlo in the …

Par PART ARVO. 'Estonian Lullaby' pour violon et piano est le nouvel arrangement d'Arvo Pärt de cette délicieuse pièce, extraite de 'Two Lullabies' (UE 32749) composée à l'origine pour deux voix féminines et un piano./ Répertoire / Violon et Piano

Par PART ARVO. Arvo Pärt came across a legend concerning the patriarch Agathon, from the 4th century, in a book containing stories of The Desert Fathers. They take us back to the cradle of Christian monasticism, in the Egyptian desert, the narrative telling of the meeting between the hermit Agathon and the leper. Agathon is tested several times by the leper. Not until after he has passed these tes…

Homage to Anish Kapoor and his sculpture 'Marsyas'. Par PART ARVO. Arvo Pärt about Lamentate: 'Lamentate is music for piano solo and orchestra. With respect to its form, however, the composition cannot really be described as a typical piano concerto. I chose the piano to be the solo instrument because it fixes our attention on something that is 'one'. This 'one' could be a person, or perhaps a fir…

Par PART ARVO. Arvo Pärt wrote the prayer of peace Da pacem Domine to fulfil a commission from Jordi Savall. He began to set this ninth-century Gregorian antiphon two days after the Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004 as his personal tribute to the victims. Since then Da pacem Domine has been performed every year in Spain to commemorate the victims of this terrorist attack. Even while originally comp…

Par PART ARVO. I have developed a highly formalised compositional system, which I have been using to write my music for twenty years. Summa is the most strict and enigmatic work in this series, said Arvo Pärt in 1994. The neutral title itself embodies the essence of the content as the work is based on the text of the Latin Credo. The great simplicity of the piece masks its complexity. The underlyi…

Par PART ARVO. Inspired by his visit to Fátima, scene of a famous Marian Apparition in 1917, Arvo Pärt wrote a small choral piece based on a passage from Psalm 8.3 “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise”. The choral piece is dedicated to painter Gerhard Richter and first premiered in Basel (CH) in 2014./ Répertoire / Chœur Mixte [SATB] a Capella

Par PART ARVO. This piece is Pärt's tribute to Benjamin Britten who died in 1976. Arvo Pärt: In the past years we have had many losses in the world of music to mourn. Why did the date of Benjamin Britten's death - 4 December 1976 - touch such a chord in me? During this time I was obviously at the point where I could recognize the magnitude of such a loss. Inexplicable feelings of guilt, more than …