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. This week, Kate Molleson explores Pärt’s landmark works and extraordinary story in conversation with his son Michael.

Music Featured:

The Deer’s Cry
Songs from Childhood (I Am Already Big)
Symphony No 1 (“Polyphonic”
Sonatina No 1
Nekrolog
Collage über BACH
Ukuaru Waltz
Festina Lente
Credo
Quintettino
Symphony No 3
When Sarah Was Ninety Years Old (excerpt)
Magnificat
Arbos
Für Alina
Summa
Fratres
Tabula Rasa
Missa Syllabica
Hymn to a Great City
De Profundis
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Spiegel im Spiegel
Passio
Berlin Mass
Estonian Lullaby
Vater Unser
Orient and Occident
Which Was the Son Of…
Littlemore Tractus
And I Heard a Voice

Presented by Kate Molleson
Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales & West

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Arvo Pärt https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002g1r7

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z