tickets for this concert on sale from 28.07 (10 a.m.)

Pascal Dusapin is a composer born in 1955, a student of Iannis Xenakis and Franco Donatani. His works feature microtonality, which stems from folkloric inspirations, as well as minimalist, modal harmonies. Granum sinapis, from 1992, is an eight-movement work for a cappella choir, combining an unconventional approach to melody and harmony with a ritualistic, almost trance-like form, in which regularly repeated phrases and techniques reveal successive images of a mystical vision. The composer drew on the words of the medieval Dominican theologian Eckhart von Hochheim (Master Eckhart; c.1260–c.1328), who towards the end of his life was accused of heresy.

Giya Kancheli’s Amao omi, from 2005, is also meditative in nature, expressed in long, euphonically harmonised sounds, sung by a choir, and delicate cantilena melodies in the part of a saxophone quartet. The Senseless War – as the title of the work translates – uses the words of Vazha Pshaveli (Luka Razikashvili; 1861–1915), a Georgian poet representing the national liberation movement.

Arvo Pärt composed the Berliner Messe for mixed choir and organ in 1990 to a commission from the 90th Katholikentag in Berlin – an ecumenical and interfaith festival organised every two years by the Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken in various German dioceses. The work was first performed on 24 May this year at St-Hedwigs-Kathedrale in Berlin. It features the use of the tintinnabuli technique: constantly repeated but minimally modified musical cells, leading to – once again, as with Dusapin and Kancheli – a mystical, purifying experience.
 

Jan Lech