Our performance with Maestro Nicolas Ellis includes the Canadian premiere of Iman Habibi’s work Jader Baum Spricht. The piece was recently performed at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin.
The Canadian-Iranian composer had this to say of this incredible new piece:
“Commissioned in celebration of the 250thanniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Jeder Baum spricht is an unsettling rhapsodic reflection on the climate catastrophe, and is written in dialogue with Beethoven’s 5th and 6th symphonies. The piece shifts focus rapidly, and attempts to achieve its goal time and time again through different means, only to be faced with similar obstacles. Like much of Beethoven’s music, this piece accompanies an unspecific narrative and imagery, and ends with a sense of resolve, one that I hope can drive our collective will towards immediate impactful change.
Beethoven perceived nature as an image of the divine, if not divinity itself. Jeder Baum spricht durch dich (every tree speaks through you) is a phrase I encountered in his writings, leading me to wonder how Beethoven, clearly an activist himself, would have responded to today’s environmental crisis.
Given that both the 5th and 6th symphonies were likely, at least in some capacity, inspired by nature, I am hoping that Jeder Baum spricht can allow us to listen to these monumental works with a renewed perspective: that is, in light of the climate crisis we live in, and the havoc we continue to wreak on the nature that inspired these classic masterpieces.”
~Iman Habibi