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Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen leads the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, where she has held the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director since 2020, in the four symphonies of Arvo Pärt. Composed over a span of forty-five years and bearing little or no relationship to one another, the symphonies represent the composer’s output at separate parts of his creative journey. The First Symphony was composed in 1963, shortly after Pärt had graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory. Its two-movement structure looks to Baroque forms, but the harmonic language is extremely advanced, reminiscent of twelve-tone serialism. The Second Symphony, from 1966, in three movements, employs a combination of serialism and textures hinting at Penderecki and the Polish school. The Third Symphony from 1971, again in three movements, reflects the time Pärt spent in the late 1960s studying chant and mediaeval music. Symphony No. 4, “Los Angeles,” came much later, in 2007–8, with a style directly inspired by sacred music. Pärt took as his models for this last symphony two great litanies of the Orthodox Church: the Canon of Repentance, and the Canon to the Holy Guardian Angel. Unusually scored for strings, harp, timpani, and percussion, this final work is also cast in three movements.

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