Opening concert Ultima 2021

Ultima opens with a Big Bang – a gigantic hymn of praise and prayer of hope for our beloved, fragile planet.

Composer and conductor Rolf Gupta has attempted to composer the entire life cycle of Earth in this monumental and highly charged extended work for orchestra and voices.

Jordens Sang (Earth’s Song) was commissioned by and premiered at Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra’s centenary in 2019. From absolute nothingness and void, to the Big Bang and the miracle of nature, the massed orchestral and choral forces of the Oslo-Filharmonien, Conductor Peter Szilvay, star Norwegian soprano Caroline Wettergreen, Det Norske Solistkor and their youth ensemble Solistkoret UNG, combine to sound out a cosmic perspective on the past and future of our precious home in the universe.

The lyrics are taken from thousands of years of spiritual texts and poems, from the ancient scrolls of the Rig Veda and Bhagavad Gita to the romantic verse of Friedrich Schiller. The fifth movement, ‘I am become Death’, contemplates the possibility of Earth’s destruction by humans and alludes to Robert Oppenheimer’s horrified reaction to the first atomic bomb test.

Gupta’s music evokes states of existence that have not yet found form, and draw on all the textural powers of the orchestra and the range of human vocal expressivity. Earth’s Song is a gigantic prayer for the planet, reflecting on the wonder and joy of creation as well as its fragility.

Rolf Gupta: Jordens Sang

1. Ex nihilo – Die Vorstellung des Chaos
2. … und es war Licht
3. The Hymn of Creation
4. Konnakol Hoquetus
5. I am become Death
6. Epilogue