ARVO PÄRT: GREATEST WORKS. An evening of music by the legendary creator: the most famous works in one concert. NIKO with orchestra, cond. Gediminas Gelgotas

An exclusive evening of Arvo Pärt's music to take place in Vilnius: the most famous works in one concert

Lithuanian audiences can look forward to a special evening this autumn – a concert featuring a program of the legendary composer Arvo Pärt's most famous works that brought him global recognition. The concert "Arvo Pärt. Greatest Works," taking place on October 18 at the LVSO Concert Hall, will bring together the most significant works of the famous Estonian composer, who is the most performed of all living classical composers in the world, into one evening. During this evening, the audience will have an exclusive opportunity to hear music that has become an important part not only of this composer's body of work but of the entire contemporary classical canon. The unique concert will feature the Vilnius-based ensemble NIKO with an orchestra and conductor Gediminas Gelgotas performing the legendary creator's works.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who celebrated his honorable 90th birthday last year, is one of the most significant contemporary authors in the world. Alongside creators such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, or John Adams, he is considered one of the most important figures in contemporary music. The famous minimalist S. Reich once said of his colleague's phenomenal music: "He is completely unconcerned with the fashions of the time, and yet he is incredibly popular." A. Pärt gained global fame through his unique "tintinnabuli" style (Latin: tintinnabulum – little bell). In "tintinnabuli" music, highly concentrated material expresses the composer's special relationship with silence, and the style itself reveals the creator's philosophy, closely linked to Christian values, religious practice, and the search for truth, beauty, and purity.

Long previous creative searches led A. Pärt to this distinctive musical world. After his studies, he was one of the first in Estonia to adopt the most modern composition techniques of the time – neoclassicism, dodecaphony, serialism, sonorism, aleatoric music, and collage principles. Although these works received high praise, none of the directions held the composer's interest for long. However, even then, features that would later become the basis of the "tintinnabuli" style were emerging in A. Pärt's music – powerful dramaturgy, concentrated musical material, developed form, and the sacredness of sound.

In the 1960s, the composer turned to early music – delving into Gregorian chant, the polyphony of the Notre Dame school, and Renaissance music. The result of these studies was the "tintinnabuli" style, born in 1976, which first sounded in the short piano piece "Für Alina," and soon after in the works "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten," "Fratres," "Tabula rasa," and "Spiegel im Spiegel."