Fragile Earth
Exploring our relationship with the natural world
Our new cross-arts season tunes in to planet earth, an inexhaustible source of inspiration to artists, and the burning challenge of our time.
Anna Meredith disrupts Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with spangling electronics in Anno, while Samoan artist Lemi Ponifasio counterpoints Mahler’s Song of the Earth with a Samoan chorus whose relationship to the sea is existential. Real birdsong weaves through Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus and Cassandra Miller’s Warbleworks, while composers from all over the globe use field recordings in an immersive day with the Hermes Experiment (We are a Mighty River).
Explore Orford Ness’s sonic archaeology in Ness Songs and dive into the sub-aqua world of John Luther Adams’s Become Ocean. There’s a concerto for recycled percussion, a Medieval floral meditation, and Judith Weir’s The Welcome Arrival of Rain. In a series centrepiece, Julia Wolfe’s major new oratorio UnEarth gathers young voices to generate spiritual hope for the future.
Events
ANNO: Four Seasons by Anna Meredith & Antonio Vivaldi
Experience the passage of time through a surprising and utterly fresh interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
Gabriela Montero with the Calidore Quartet: Canaima
Celebrated Venezuelan pianist and composer Gabriela Montero is joined by the Calidore Quartet for a programme of chamber music including a new work, Canaima, by Montero herself.
Ligeti Quartet: Sunrise Missions
The remarkable Ligeti Quartet traces the shifting contours of memory, nature, and change, through music by Kaija Saariaho, Cassandra Miller, John Luther Adams and many more.
The Hermes Experiment: Let Us Be a Mighty River
A collaboration between The Hermes Experiment and five international sound artists, this immersive concert-installation responds to the climate emergency.
The Marian Consort: The Language of Flowers
Acclaimed choral ensemble Marian Consort pays tribute to flowers and gardens both actual and allegorical, with music from the late Renaissance to the present day.
Julia Wolfe: unEarth
US composer Julia Wolfe’s major new work unEarth receives its UK premiere at the Barbican, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, National Youth Voices, and Danish soprano Else Torp.
Sea Beneath the Skin / Song of the Earth
Reflecting on the powerful words of the late Kiribati poetess and activist Teresia Teaiwa, Lemi Ponifasio's Sea Beneath the Skin creates a poignant performance featuring the Theatre of Kiribati.
