“Arvo Pärt. Tabula Rasa”, by Renaud Capuçon.

French violinist Renaud Capuçon (Chambéry, 1976) was appointed last May as the new artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, while retaining his posts as artistic director of the Sommet Musicaux de Gstaad and co-director of the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival. Capuçon has taken up his new post to coincide with the release on Erato of his first recording with the orchestra, Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa, featuring eight works by the Estonian composer. The disc opens with Tabula rasa from 1977 (with François Sochard as second violin soloist), followed by the essential Fratres. The album also includes Summa, Silouan’s Song, Darf ich…, Spiegel im Spiegel (with Guillaume Bellom on piano) and, finally, Für Lennart in Memoriam, composed in 2006, the year of the death of the man who was President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001 and a friend of Pärt’s since the 1960s. The composition was premiered on 26 March 2006, in St. Charles Church in Tallinn, during the official funeral for the politician and playwright.