Arvo Pärt at 85

by Rebecca Dawson, Artistic and Executive Director of Music at Oxford.

We live in complex and often confusing times, and the music of Arvo Pärt invites us to take a step back, and to see beauty in the tiniest object.  For Pärt, every single note is important, and every silence between each note is important.  His music could only have been written in modern times, and yet one has the sense that it might have existed for centuries.

In 1984 the founder of ECM Records, Manfred Eicher, heard a work by Pärt on a late-night radio broadcast while driving.  He pulled over and was so immediately impressed that he resolved to record it.  Tabula Rasa was the very first album in the label’s New Series.

Pärt’s music is performed extensively worldwide, and in the UK, vocal ensembles such as the Hilliard Ensemble (also ECM artists) worked with the composer extensively, recording many works and bringing them to a wide audience.  In addition to the vocal and choral works there is also a large body of music for orchestra and smaller instrumental forces; conductors have included Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Kristjan Järvi, among many others.

I wrote my university dissertation on the music of the Estonian composer, met him a few years later after a concert, and then started working for the esteemed Viennese music publishing house Universal Edition, where I was delighted to be part of a team representing him and his works, alongside many other leading lights of 20^th century music.

Music at Oxford wishes Arvo Pärt a very happy birthday – palju õnne sünnipäevaks.

For those of you interested in learning more about Arvo Pärt in relation to the international contemporary music scene, you can read the article ‘Music at the Edge of Silence’ by Anders Beyer, the Bergen International Festival’s CEO and Artistic Director or visit the Arvo Pärt Centre’s website.

Arvo Pärt’s Da pacem Domine. Performed in Estonia on 10th September 2020 by Collegium Musicale, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet and Dirigent Endrik Üksvärav

Spotify Playlist

Check out our Spotify playlist below which highlights some of Arvo Pärt’s most famous works .