Aside from occasional performances of the Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, Fratres is the sole work of Arvo Pärt in the regular repertoire of Christoph von Dohnányi. Both works were written in 1977, when Part’s music was undergoing a seachange from dissonant modernism into a new, sparer style. Tintinnabulation was the name he applied to the process, which builds simply on the notes of a tonic triad. ‘I have discovered,’ remarked the composer, ‘that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. The three notes of a triad are like bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation.’