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Arvo Pärt at 90
The Estonian composer’s music of simplicity, spirituality – and silence – is universally appealing and enduringly rewarding. We pay tribute ahead of his milestone birthday
Trained at Tallinn Conservatory in Estonia, he began composing in a modernist idiom, experimenting with serialism and collage techniques in the 1960s – often to the dismay of Soviet authorities who sought artistic control over the creative process. Works such as Nekrolog(1960), the first 12-tone piece written in Estonia, and the avant garde Credo(1968), which juxtaposed Bach with a compendium of avant-garde techniques and incorporated overt Christian themes, drew the ire of censors. Silhouette (2009), for example, is a short dance-like piece for string orchestra and percussion based on the elegant structural design of the Eiffel Tower, and his quasi-piano concerto, Lamentate (2002) was commissioned by London’s Tate Modern and was inspired by the enormous sculpture Marsyas by Anish Kapoor.
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