But Mother Earth is unforgiving and unforgetting as well. She doesn’t spare us when we take too much and are not giving anything in return. After all, we live in a time where we collectively seem to realise that our planet could exist without mankind, but mankind won’t last a day without our planet. At a time of electric vehicles and flight shame, mankind turns to Mother Earth and wonders how far we can stretch things. This is alarming, but hopeful and interesting at the same time: we invest in new developments and rational choices need to be made.

The internationally renowned composer Kate Moore writes a new work for choir and reed quintet. In Chestnut Poet, Kate Moore addresses a shortcoming in our society that she views as the root of the troubled relationship between humankind and earth: a lack of compassion – for each other, our environment and our planet.

Programme

Paul Simon The Sound of Silence
Kate Moore Chestnut Poet: Song of the Chestnut Tree, a Story about Compassion
Claudio Monteverdi Hor che ‘l ciel e terra
Frank Ticheli Earth Song
Antonìn Dvořák Songs of Nature
Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis
Jean-Féry Rebel Les Éléments
Unknown/Raaf Hekkema The Hurrian Hymn

With Cappella Amsterdam and director Daniël Reuss.
Dramaturg Titus Tiel Groenestege
Lighting design Floriaan Ganzevoort