The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Concerto Copenhagen explore new soundscapes in Arvo Pärt's music.
Arvo Pärt's music is in many ways a rebellion against post-war classical music, which, roughly speaking, meant louder, faster, bigger and more of everything. Pärt's music is anything but - it is gentle, slow and insists on repetition and silence. The early music movement, of which Concerto Copenhagen is a leading part, was also created as a rebellion against the classical music scene in post-war Europe, seeking - in many ways like Pärt - originality in the simple and transparent, a humility towards the musical raw material and the shortest possible path from the musician's expression to the audience's impression.
It's as if Pärt's music is calling out to be performed on baroque instruments - so that's what we will do.
You could ask what Pärt and Handel have in common musically. Musically, the answer is: nothing. But perhaps both composers, despite their differences, seek the divine? Handel Pärt is almost the incarnation of ornamentation and virtuosity, while Pärt is precisely the absence of all that. Where the beauty is found is up to the audience to judge.
This is the first time CoCo interprets Arvo Pärt's compositions - and we expect to open up new soundscapes and possibilities when we interpret the composer's layered works with the orchestra's periodic instruments.
Under the direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, CoCo will collaborate with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) to prepare a concert program with music by Arvo Pärt and Georg Friedrich Handel.
The concert will take place on August 25 as part of Tartu 2025 - the main program of the European Capital of Culture. The concert will be followed by a recording process to release an album of Arvo Pärt's works during Berlin Classics, and later a tour of various European venues.