Ensemble Resonanz / Ellen Ugelvik / Riccardo Minasi

In the concert hall, nature is a paradox, a fantasy, a memory, an artistic recreation of the outside inside. A moment of reflection.

Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ creates such a natural world: the murmur of a brook, the cheerful bustle of the countryside, the approaching thunderstorm. An idyll, almost sacred in its beauty, which even in Beethoven’s time was more a place of longing than a reality – a romantic image that today shifts even more into the realm of the fantastic. A quick selfie with Beethoven in the greenery!

Kristine Tjøgersen, on the other hand, opens the ear to the inaudible: insects, birds, leaves and water are moulded into notes, her music gives voice to the hidden world. Memory and construction intermingle, the sound of nature becomes a deliberately staged, artificial image - acoustically condensed, decorated with miniature trees made of plastic. The Norwegian composer, who was recently awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s Composition Prize, creates a powerful plea for our ecosystems – beyond the sentimental romanticism of nature.

How intact is the intact world? And what responsibility do we bear for ensuring that it does not disappear outside?