A Meeting of Two Masters

Ockeghem, the fifteenth-century Franco-Flemish guru of spiritual counterpoint,
and Arvo Pärt, eighty this year, the Estonian magus of mystic minimalism.

Although they generally use very different methods to create their sound-worlds, 
yet they usually seem to arrive at the same place.
Ockeghem's Missa Mi-Mi is named for its opening melodic motif, 
but beyond that, Ockeghem always seems to do the unexpected, 
and no-one has yet really explained how or why this music achieves such inevitable beauty. 
Pärt's music is almost easy to explain, at one level, but no-one has yet really explained why, 
by doing the expected, he always creates the unexpected. 

Our program interweaves motets by Pärt among the movements of Ockeghem's great Mass.

At the concert Ars Nova will be joined by thirteen talented young singers from Århus in the three pieces by Pärt: Alleluia-Tropus, I Am the True Vine and Da Pacem. The singers have been chosen by Carsten Sejr-Hansen, Director of Music af the Cathedral.