A collaboration between the German artist Gerhard Richter and the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is one of the stand-out events at this year’s Manchester International Festival (2-19 July). Richter’s display of eight paintings—from his Birkenau (2015) and Double Grey (2014) series—at the newly refurbished Whitworth gallery dovetails with Pärt’s 95-second choral piece Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima, performed by the 14-member Estonian choir Vox Clamantis (until 11 July and then by local choirs). Hans Ulrich Obrist, the co-director of London's Serpentine Galleries, gave a suitably eloquent opening speech last week, highlighting the logistics of a piece incorporating choirs (and the fact that the music element cannot, unfortunately, run 24/7). "The singers have to have lunch and dinner.... they go home and the paintings stay here," he quipped, which is just as well as visitors are often seen fighting back tears, such is the emotional impact of the rousing two-hander.