Arvo Pärt: Fratres

Music for violin and piano

Lana Trotovsek / Yoko Misumi

Fratres (Brothers) is a composition by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt exemplifying his tintinnabuli style of composition. It is three-part music, written in 1977, without fixed instrumentation and has been described as a “mesmerising set of variations on a six-bar theme combining frantic activity and sublime stillness that encapsulates Pärt’s observation that ‘the instant and eternity are struggling within us’.”
Structurally, Fratres consists of a set of nine chord sequences, separated by a recurring percussion motif (the so-called "refuge"). The chord sequences themselves follow a pattern, and while the progressing chords explore a rich harmonic space, they have been generated by means of a simple formula.
Fratres is driven by three main voices. The low and high voice are each restricted to playing notes from the D harmonic minor scale (D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C#); the middle voice is restricted to the notes of the A minor triad (A, C, E). The entire piece is accompanied by drones in A and E, which are primarily heard in the refuge between each sequence.
The chords are created by the movement of the three voices: the low voice starts at C#; the high voice starts at E. Both the low and high voices are moved up or down the D harmonic minor scale at the same time, with the direction of the movement depending on the position within the sequence. The middle voice starts at A and plays a different pattern (A, E, E, C, C, C, C, A, A, E, E, C, C, A). The generated chords create harmonic ambiguity, since both C# and C are present, yielding an A major or A minor feel.
Lana Trotovšek  is a London-based Slovenian violinist. She is a soloist and chamber musician performing in U.S.A., U.K., China, Japan, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. She plays on a violin, made by Pietro Antonio dalla Costa from Treviso in 1750. 
She has made her debut with Valery Gergiev and Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in 2012 with Violin Concerto No. 1 (Prokofiev) . She has performed in Konzerthaus, Vienna, Teatro la Fenice Venice, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Wigmore Hall London, St. John's Smiths Square London, London's Kings Place and elsewhere. In 2016 she debuted with London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda.

Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Arte TV (France), and RTV Slovenia. She has recorded for Signum, Champs Hill and Meridian Records, and Hedone records.

Lana has been featured artist at renowned international festivals including Rheingau Musik Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Festival International de Santander, Emilia Romagna Festival, Ljubljana Festival, Dubrovnik Festival, Kissinger Sommer, St Magnus Festival and Aldeburgh Festival.
Lana Trotovsek and  Yoko Misumi are members of Greenwich Trio (Heather Tuach, cello), whose founding member was Stjepan Hauser (2Cellos).