Good Friday 2019 - part 2

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Here’s the Arvo Pärt (“Passio” - his own setting of St. John’s telling of the Passion narrative, John 18:1-40). This recording by the Hilliard ensemble is still my favourite, 30 years after it’s release. Pärt, a living Estonian composer born in 1935, is, together with Henryk Gorecki, one of the best known exponents of a musical style that is, at once, ancient and modern, that some call “Holy Minimalism”.

The final moments of his Passio, when Pärt adds an extra line of text sung by the Chorus to round things off, breaks me every time I hear it, and I’m sure today will be no different.

“You who have suffered for us, have mercy upon us. Amen."

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