As Arvo Pärt approaches his 90th birthday, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir honours the ‘father of Holy Minimalism’ with a moving programme at the BBC Proms – where stillness becomes its own kind of protest.
At nearly 90, Arvo Pärt remains one of the most singular voices in contemporary music – a composer who, in an age of noise, dares to write silence. On 31 July, that silence will resonate powerfully within the vast dome of the Royal Albert Hall as the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, under the baton of Tõnu Kaljuste, returns to the BBC Proms with a programme dedicated to the Estonian master and his enduring message of peace.
“The overarching theme of the concert could be described as peace,” says Kaljuste. “From inner serenity to the yearning to end war.”
Meditative plea for peace
The choir, long celebrated for its crystalline interpretations of Pärt’s work, will perform a Late Night Prom that weaves together the meditative and the dramatic – from the stillness of Da pacem Domine to the thunderous ritual of Veljo Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron. The programme also features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ukraine-born Estonian composer Galina Grigorjeva, offering a tapestry of spiritual and cultural voices.
It is the third time the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir has performed at the Proms. In 2005 and 2008, under the direction of Paul Hillier, they presented Pärt’s works alongside early music and Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. But this year’s return is especially poignant: on 11 September, Pärt will turn 90. The Proms concert is just one of several tributes performed by the choir across Europe in honour of the milestone, with earlier concerts in Paris, Prague, Dresden and Munich.
The Royal Albert Hall programme opens with Da pacem, a choral prayer for peace, composed in the wake of the 2004 Madrid bombings. “The most dramatic moment of the concert is the contrast between Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron and Pärt’s Da pacem,” Kaljuste notes. “It is a deeply meditative plea for peace.”
Tormis – Pärt’s first composition teacher – offers a stark counterpoint. His piece, based on the Finnish epic Kalevala and set against contemporary poetry, is a ferocious indictment of violence, forging an elemental cry that feels uncomfortably close to current global tensions. In this context, Pärt’s music becomes not just spiritual, but political – a still, small voice in the storm.
Also on the programme are Pärt’s Veni creator, Magnificat, The Deer’s Cry, and the UK premiere of Für Jan van Eyck, alongside Peace Upon You, Jerusalem, De profundis, and Vater unser. Grigorjeva contributes Svyatki – Part V, while the ethereal harmonies of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Bach’s motet Ich lasse dich nicht anchor the evening in broader sacred tradition.
Organist Kadri Toomoja joins the ensemble, alongside soloists Yena Choi, Annika Lõhmus, Geir Luht and Toomas Tohert.
Carrying the torch for Pärt
For Kaljuste, the Proms is “a celebration of musical culture, where classical music forms the heart, but not the boundary.” Founded in 1895 to make classical music more accessible, the Proms – short for promenade concerts – retains its democratic spirit, with affordable tickets and standing-room areas that hark back to 18th-century London pleasure gardens.
Now comprising 86 concerts over nearly two months, this year’s festival runs from 18 July to 13 September, primarily in London’s Royal Albert Hall but with satellite performances across the UK. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and by Estonia’s Klassikaraadio.
Named one of the world’s top choirs by BBC Music Magazine, the Tallinn-based ensemble has earned international acclaim not only for its technical purity but for the depth of emotion it channels through Pärt’s music. There is something elemental in the sound – a kind of musical asceticism that speaks to the soul rather than the senses.
Across Europe this spring, the choir has carried the torch for Pärt’s 90th, performing in venues from the Philharmonie de Paris to the Handel Festival in Halle. Some concerts focused exclusively on his a cappella works; others paired Pärt with Handel, performed in collaboration with Concerto Copenhagen. But it is the Proms appearance that feels most emblematic – a bridge between East and West, sacred and secular, past and present.
In a world riven by noise, perhaps there is no better time to listen to Pärt. Not just to his music, but to what it invites us to hear: the space between the notes, the dignity of silence, and the fragile, persistent hope for peace.
BBC Proms: Arvo Pärt at 90 – tickets and programme.
