Ensemble Resonanz / Ellen Ugelvik / Riccardo Minasi

When conductor Riccardo Minasi takes to the podium, a search for music-historical traces, rousing energy and boldness merge into a unique artistic vision. As Principal Guest Conductor & Partner in Crime, he leads the Hamburg-based Ensemble Resonanz through Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the »Pastorale« – a fully composed dream image of a rural idyll. Interspersed with the symphonic movements are excerpts from Kristine Tjøgersen’s ‘Piano Concerto’, which traces the sounds of Norwegian forests. Pianist Ellen Ugelvik makes miniature trees grow in the grand piano.

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?

PERFORMERS

Ensemble Resonanz chamber orchestra

Ellen Ugelvik piano

Riccardo Minasi conductor

Clemens K. Thomas dramaturgy, concept, video pre-production

Evelina Dembacke video, lights

Letycia Rossi video pre-production

PROGRAM

Kristine Tjøgersen
Klavierkonzert (Uraufführung einer Neufassung)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 »Pastoral Symphony«