Ellen Ugelvik, Piano
Riccardo Minasi, Conductor
Ensemble Resonanz

Letycia Rossi & Clemens K. Thomas, Video Production
Evelina Dembacke, Live Video & Light
Clemens K. Thomas, Idea & Concept
Kristine Tjøgersen & Clemens K. Thomas, Dramaturgy

Beethoven in Dialogue with the Present

The Ensemble Resonanz approaches Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony—his lyrical homage to landscapes and rural life—with contemporary ears: listening, commenting, questioning. Between its movements, excerpts from Kristine Tjøgersen’s acclaimed 2019 concerto for piano, live camera, and orchestra—newly reimagined for this project—are interwoven.

The Norwegian composer, recently awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composers’ Prize, draws inspiration from the hidden sounds of forests. Yet her aim is not to imitate nature, but to explore imaginative spaces that resonate with today’s ecological realities. Her concerto, both acoustically and visually striking, becomes a moving plea for fragile ecosystems without lapsing into sentimental nostalgia.

At the piano, Ellen Ugelvik animates this sonic landscape while gradually transforming the instrument itself: miniature trees appear on and inside the grand piano, projected live onto a large screen. In this way, sound and image intertwine, turning the instrument into a metaphorical terrain.

»The connections between the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity are complex, and political responses so far have been hesitant. Can Beethoven’s Pastoral still be programmed in a way that truly engages with today’s destruction of nature? No! The Pastoral idealizes nature, presenting it merely as a construct. The reality of human-driven climate change is absent—and it is precisely this absence that makes us feel it!«
—Clemens K. Thomas, dramaturge

»Tjøgersen’s piano concerto is, in a surreal way, a shattering portrait of our relationship with the planet. Her idea is that if we open our ears to beauty, we will understand why it is worth preserving.«
—Jennifer Gersten, in an essay for the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

Beethoven’s idyllic vision of brooks, storms, and country dances—nature as an idealized construct—meets Tjøgersen’s unsettlingly poetic portrait of our relationship to the planet. The dialogue raises urgent questions: How intact is this pastoral world? And what responsibility do we bear for its preservation?