In a rather thrilling coincidence, two great east European masters have visited the Bridgewater Hall in consecutive months. Krzysztof Penderecki came in June to receive fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music. Now the Estonian mystic minimalist Arvo Pärt made his first visit to the city as a featured artist of the Manchester international festival.

It was hard to tell whether the two concerts were poles apart, or a continuation of the same circle. If Penderecki tends to scare people (his music was used in The Shining and The Exorcist) Pärt represents the more approachable end of modern composition. It is not unknown for his beguilingly becalmed harmonies to come out with the cheese board at a certain kind of dinner party.

Of course, that’s an oversimplification, as there were plenty of occasions in this concert to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. In the solo motet Como Cierva Sedientia, the extremes of separation between the high soprano, Polina Pasztircsák, and the bass clarinet and contrabassoon opened up a harrowing chasm of doubt. And the intensity with which the outstanding Estonian choir Vox Clamantis hit the consonants in Pärt’s setting of Stabat Mater had the horrible force of nails piercing flesh.

Playing in semi-darkness with minimum vibrato, the Manchester Camerata proved to be the ideal ensemble for this type of music. The double basses eked out the immovable frequency that underpins Fratres with absolute security. Gabor Takács-Nagy’s conducting was perfectly transparent, though his attention to detail was evidenced by the manner in which his score for this austere, monochromatic music was festooned with fluorescent markings and coloured Post-it notes. Pärt could only curtail the ovation he received by pointing to his wrist and miming the universal gesture that indicates an old man needs his sleep.

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