Sacrum Profanum – Naturceare

What does nature sound like when concern for it turns into anxiety? Four compositions will guide us through the equinox, suffering, a parched field, and dawn.

“Naturceare” combines the English word “nature” with the Old English “ceare”—meaning care, fear, and worry. It describes a state in which wonder at the world can no longer be separated from fear for its future.The concert will open with an expanded version of Ritual for Changing Times – Spring Equinox by Tine Surel Lange. An artistic video featuring a dancer against the backdrop of a mountain in Lofoten will serve both as a visual for the audience and as a score from which a 14-piece orchestra will interpret gestures and the direction of the sound’s development. The equinox ritual expresses the hope that humanity will manage to change course and regain humility toward its surroundings.

Exactly half a century after its premiere at the Shiraz Festival, Cahargah will return. Hell Is But a Sparkle of Our Futile Suffering by Iranian composer Fozié Majd. For the first performance since 1976, a score has been arranged and orchestral parts prepared. Cahargah refers to one of the Persian modal systems, while the rest of the title sounds like a reversal of a religious concept: hell is not a future punishment, but merely a reflection of the suffering already experienced here. In light of the war, repression, and the aftermath of brutally suppressed protests in Iran, this statement is no longer confined to history alone.

Two pieces commissioned by the National Museum in Warsaw draw inspiration from the paintings of Józef Chełmoński. In what field whispers, Agata Zemla will perform on an amplified field painting filled with grasses and stalks. The sounds of a parched meadow will link the environmental crisis with the memory of the exploitation of peasant ancestors. In Uhtceare by Katarina Gryvul, strings, voice, and electronics will evoke birds awakening, and with them, nostalgia, loneliness, and an awareness of transience. The concert will become a ritual of moving through fear, suffering, and climate mourning, with hope for change and the question, “What next?”

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