While Pärt might look holy and reserved, he’s actually full of mischievous humour. He talked of a crazy “happening” in the Sixties when he dressed up as a doctor with a surgical mask over his face to perform some operation on a violin which unintentionally ended up in flames. He became branded as the man who burned violins.

It’s difficult to imagine this very serious composer doing that … but hey, it was the sixties!

The above is from this.

I sure wish I could watch BBC Four, and especially the series on Sacred Music (here’s a link to Gorecki & Pärt, but it’s “not available in your area”, I’m told.