Part A. - Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten - Conducteur

Description

This piece is Pärt's tribute to Benjamin Britten who died in 1976.Arvo Pärt: In the past years we have had many losses in the world of music to mourn.Why did the date of Benjamin Britten's death - 4 December 1976 - touch such a chord in me? During this time I was obviously at the point where I could recognize the magnitude of such a loss.

Inexplicable feelings of guilt, more than that even, arose in me.I had just discovered Britten for myself.Just before his death I began to appreciate the unusual purity of his music - I had had the impression of the same kind of purity in the ballads of Guillaume de Machaut.

And besides, for a long time I had wanted to meet Britten personally - and now it would not come to that.'The last chord of Cantus is seemingly never-ending.It just stands there, neither growing nor decaying.

Something has been achieved and it shouldn't be given up.The content of the whole work leads up to this point.' Nora Pärt