Our beautiful and tormented blue planet, floating in space – can it be saved? Perhaps, if it saves itself from us. This notion is raised in Karin Rehnqvist’s award-winning Silent Earth for mixed choir and orchestra. Eva Ollikainen conducts.
A discussion one evening a few years ago between composer Karin Rehnqvist and poet Kerstin Perski was the origin of Silent Earth. They discussed Earth, people and the threatening changes occurring in nature. Silent Earth asks questions such as: What will happen – to Earth and to us? Has the fateful moment arrived? The tones and poetry are pressing forces. Earth is on fire. Earth is trembling. Save us. Earth, save yourself. From us?
Silent Earth won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2022.
After the intermission, we hear Gustav Mahler’s powerful Symphony No. 1. It is solemn and mournful, with folk melodies and a stormy ending. A Titan, as its nickname suggests. Everything is conducted by the sure hand of Eva Ollikainen, who makes her long-awaited return to the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in this performance.
