Tartu 2024: Pärt & Händel

 

Arvo Pärt's music is, in many ways, a rebellion against the post-war classical music, which, bluntly speaking, meant louder, faster, larger, and more of everything. Pärt's music is anything but that - it is soft, slow, and insists on repetitions and silence. The early music movement, which Concerto Copenhagen is a leading part of, was also created as a rebellion toward the classical music scene in post-war Europe and seeks – in many ways, just 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. 

 

Pärt's music calls to be performed on Baroque instruments – so that's what we will do. One might ask, what do Pärt and Händel musically have in common. Musically speaking, the answer is: nothing. But perhaps both composers, in all their differences, are seeking the divine? Händel is almost the incarnation of ornamentation and virtuosity, Pärt is precisely the absence of all that. Where beauty lies is for audience to judge.

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It is the first time CoCo is interpreting the compositions of Arvo Pärt – and we expect to be opening new soundscapes and possibilities when interpreting the composer’s multi-layered output with the orchestra’s period instruments. 

Under the direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, CoCo will together with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) embark on a collaboration to prepare a concert program featuring the music of Arvo Pärt and Georg Friedrich Händel.

 

The concert will be given on August 25th as a part of Tartu 2025 – the main programmer of the European Capital of Culture. The concert will be followed by the recording process to release an album with Arvo Pärt’s works under Berlin Classics, and later on a tour in various European venues.