Arvo Pärt's music is, in the composer's own words, like a "white light which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener."
In the latter decades of the twentieth century, the language of classical music was transformed, with atonality pushed to the limits of its expression, sometimes approaching cacophony. It was in this context that the resonant voice of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt emerged, full of serenity and intensity, inaugurating a new style: tintinnabuli (from the Latin for "bell"), inspired by minimalism, medieval music, Gregorian chant, and polyphony. Tintinnabuli is "an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers – in my life, my music, my work," the composer explains.
In this 2017 concert at Paris's stunning Fondation Louis Vuitton with virtuoso violinist Gidon Kremer and his orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the profound mysticism of works like Tabula Rasa provides a fitting tribute to the Estonian master. Soloist and ensemble offer up moments of sheer meditative beauty, including the delicate and cinematic Fratres (a piece premiered by Gidon Kremer himself 40 years earlier, in 1977), all performed in the presence of Pärt himself. Kremer also interprets a sublime arrangement of Schubert's C Major Fantasy, a monumental work of great clarity and a perfect counterpart to Pärt's luminous music.
