At the beginning of Silence & Rapture the audience was asked, along with the usual admonition about turning off phones, to hold its applause until the end of a program consisting of many parts. In other words, to give silence permission to surround the 17 separate pieces of music in this interval-free concert.

It was an opportunity for serenity and reflection as hundreds of people kept their peace, held their breath and stifled coughs (mostly) to allow music to settle over the room and within the mind and heart.

Silence is a powerful force and arguably Silence & Rapture could have allowed room for more of it in a program that lasted only 75 minutes. Silence wasn’t just an absence of sound. It was a metaphor for life’s vicissitudes as we journey towards the ending we all share.

But even with that caveat this was an experience in which time seemed magically suspended and in which music, dance and voice intertwined to elevate all three.

Silence & Rapture. Photo © Daniel Boud

Silence & Rapture brought together J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt, soulmates across the centuries in their devotion to matters of the...