Georgijs Osokins plays "For Arvo", a recital in honor of Arvo Pärt

Having won over audiences worldwide since gaining recognition at the 2015 Chopin Competition, Latvian-born, Berlin-based pianist Georgijs Osokins now lends his “impeccable technique” (France Musique) and “subtlety of touch” (The Strad) to a poignant program of works by prolific Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. At the Arvo Pärt Center — the composer’s personal archive and exhibition center near Tallinn — Osokins breathes life into Pärt’s ethereal, minimalist, transcendent music, written using his tintinnabuli style (the ringing of bells) and inspired by Gregorian chant. For Arvo brings together some of Pärt’s solo piano works and Osokins’s arrangements with Baroque gems by Bach and Scarlatti, a hopeful lied by Strauss, and Scriabin’s ominous Vers la flamme: a selection that resonates beautifully with a quote from Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M. and a fervent admirer of Pärt, to whom his music evokes “a house on fire and infinite calm.”