Georgijs Osokins Honours Arvo Pärt with an Album Celebrating the Composer’s 90th Birthday

“This album is a declaration of my love for Arvo and his music”
Georgijs Osokins

For Arvo presents Pärt’s complete solo piano works together with
newly transcribed versions by Osokins of iconic pieces including Fratres

The album comes out on 5 September 2025 – listen to Für Alina here

Deutsche Grammophon recently announced a new and exclusive collaboration with Georgijs Osokins. A proud advocate of the rarely celebrated musical heritage of the Baltic states, the Latvian-born pianist will open his DG career with an album of works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who turns 90 this year. Osokins has recorded Pärt’s complete solo piano works and realised his own creative and idiomatic transcriptions of several other famous pieces, including Fratres. These reflect both his musical integrity and his profound level of engagement with Pärt’s work.

For Arvo will be released in all formats on 5 September 2025 to coincide with the composer’s 90th birthday on 11 September. Für Alina is available digitally from 23 May. It will be followed on 4 July by Mommy’s Kiss and on 1 August by Osokins’ transcription of Lamentate: Fragile e conciliante.

Relishing the role of musical archaeologist, Georgijs Osokins loves exploring new areas of the literature and unearthing hidden treasures for his instrument. He is also a skilled arranger and transcriber, often incorporating reimagined works into his programmes. His aim with For Arvo is to introduce Pärt’s music to younger generations and, through his own new transcriptions for solo piano, to shed new light on some of the composer’s best-loved works and some lesser-known gems.

The album reflects Pärt’s compositional evolution from avant-garde complexity to his unique and groundbreaking tintinnabuli (“little bells”) idiom. The result of a period of introspection in the early 1970s, this style combines elements of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony with minimalism, resulting in music that is striking for both its simplicity and its emotional and spiritual intensity.

For Arvo includes Pärt’s earliest solo piano pieces, Sonatinas Nos. 1 and 2 (1958/9) and Partita (1958), as well as his very first tintinnabuli work, Für Alina (1976). The new transcriptions by Osokins include Fratres (1977, without fixed instrumentation) and Fragile e conciliante from Lamentate (2002, piano & orchestra).

The pianist has also taken advantage of the possibilities offered by the recording studio to present a fresh perspective on Pari intervallo (1976, written in four parts, without fixed instrumentation) and on Hymn to a Great City (1984, for two pianos). Osokins plays a 100-year-old Blue Steinway piano –courtesy of the Symphoniker Hamburg – an instrument whose unique sound helped him capture and convey the distinctive sonorities of Pärt’s music.

In preparing for the recording, Osokins was able to learn both from his mentor Gidon Kremer, a renowned Pärt specialist, and from the composer himself and those close to him. “In Georgijs,” says Kremer, “I see not just a remarkable pianist, but a true kindred spirit, someone deeply attuned to the spiritual core of Arvo’s music, and capable of carrying that voice forward for generations to come.”

“The opportunity to be in contact with Arvo and Nora Pärt and the team at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa over the years was invaluable,” adds Osokins. “Their generously shared insights deeply enriched the artistic result.” The For Arvo project has also partnered with Wintour Group International, which promotes unique cultural initiatives across the Baltic region and beyond, collaborating with some of the world’s most outstanding musicians and ensembles.