Œuvres chorales

Description

Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt lived during a period of remarkable changes in the last decades of the Soviet Union. Starting in the 1970s, religion became part of public life again as state restrictions eased. Many people undertook personal spiritual journeys, especially towards the Russian Orthodox faith, which often reflected in the arts, particularly in music. Schnittke's adherence to Christianity was triggered by the unexpected death of his mother in 1972 and culminated in his baptism in Vienna ten years later. Arvo Pärt came from a Lutheran family in Estonia but enthusiastically embraced the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, following an intensive study of liturgical music. The two composers then began to incorporate religious themes into their work, moving away from the modernist abstraction that had characterized the music of their earlier careers.