PÄRT Hymn to a Great City / Georgijs Osokins, Martha Argerich | Deutsche Grammophon

Legendary pianists Martha Argerich joins forces with new DG signing Georgijs Osokins to present a rare recording of Arvo Pärt’s Hymn to a Great City, released today to celebrate the composer’s 90th birthday this year (11 September).  

The idea was sparked at the Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg in 2025, after Osokins’s performance of Pärt’s solo pieces and Rachmaninoff’s Trio Nr. 2 with Gidon Kremer and Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė. That same evening, Argerich – who never before performed Pärt’s music – decided to record this piece for two pianos. 

This spontaneous, late-night session at Laeiszhalle transforms Pärt’s work into more than a „Hymn to a Great City“: it becomes a hymn to a great composer, and at the same time a personal gesture from Argerich to a young colleague who has illuminated new paths into Pärt’s piano music for all of us.