Arvo Pärt Spiegel in Spiegel Michael van Krücker

Spiegel im Spiegel, possibly one of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s most familiar works, has lent its name to this CD. What does this title mean for the sequence of the compositions that we perform here? And what exactly is a mirror? A mirror, by definition, is a reflective surface on which an exact reversed image is created. There are also various forms of mirrors, such as convex and concave mirrors which create distorted images. The different forms of the mirrors correspond to various performance possibilities, one of which is the completely different effect caused by the use of a different instrumentation when a piece is immediately mirrored in the sequence. The two trios are the central nucleus of the CD; this central point becomes the mirroring axis for the sequence of the other works. The CD opens with Spiegel im Spiegel and therefore also ends with it. The second work on this CD, Für Alina, is consequently also the penultimate: this sequence is consequently extended from the centre in both directions. The Passacaglia, a Baroque variation form, also therefore corresponds to the Variationen zur Gesundung der Arinuschka.