New Horizons
Kate Molleson explores the extraordinary life and creative trajectory of Arvo Pärt in his 90th birthday year, with his son Michael. Today, the Pärts’ lives are turned upside down.
Kate Molleson and Michael Pärt discuss his family’s forced emigration and their journey into the unknown.
Composer of the Week celebrates the 90th birthday of Arvo Pärt, one of the world’s most-performed and recognisable living composers. A composer who had the courage to defy Soviet edicts, to spend years searching for answers, to invent a personal language that pivots on past and present, on sound, silence and clarity. Throughout the week, Kate Molleson explores Pärt’s landmark works and extraordinary story in conversation with his son Michael. And researchers from the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia provide exclusive insights into Pärt’s more personal archive.
Today, Kate and Michael look back on the moment it became impossible for his parents to stay in their homeland and the extraordinary scene of Pärt’s forbidden music accidentally resonating around the departure hall of a Belarusian border check point. Journeying into the unknown, the family had to start afresh in Berlin, where Pärt’s music found a global audience and new collaborators.
Hymn to a Great City
Katia and Marielle Labèque, piano
De Profundis
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ
Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Stuttgart State Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Spiegel im Spiegel
Vladimir Spivakov, violin
Sergej Bezrodny, piano
Passio (excerpt)
The Hillard Ensemble
Paul Hillier, conductor
Berlin Mass (2nd Alleluia; Veni, Sancte Spiritus; Credo)
Polyphony
Andrew Lucas, organ
Stephen Layton, conductor
Produced by Amelia Parker for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Audio Wales and West
On radio
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- Thu 31 Jul 2025 16:00ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3
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