The splendid Leeds Cathedral Choir, conductor Benjamin Saunders and organist Felix Justin present choral and organ music by Arvo Pärt, the iconic Estonian master of New Spirituality. Included are the popular Berliner Messe, the Beatitudes, the complete organ works and Pärt’s most famous work, Spiegel im Spiegel, here played on the organ. Recorded in the spacious and generous acoustics of Leeds Cathedral, also featuring its magnificent organ.

Booklet contains excellent liner notes, as well as the sung texts and the English translation, plus biographies of the artists.

Arvo Pärt’s music resists the easily achieved peace of much Minimalist music of its time, even if its economy of gesture and expression – the joy taken in apparently simple beauty – has made him one of the iconic composers of our time. Such beauty is not simply achieved, and Pärt has written slowly, again unlike many of his contemporaries, filling each new piece with quiet quirks of harmony and unexpected turns that make them as satisfying to perform as they are to hear.