Sikorski
‘For years I have been preoccupied with the idea of a work for female voice and orchestra entitled 'The Song of the Two Earths'. Naturally, one immediately thinks of Gustav Mahler, and that is not wrong. But the connection to Mahler is not very strong. My text, which I am writing myself, takes its starting point from Isaiah 66: 'For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.' This prophetic promise is taken up again in the Second Epistle of Petrus: 'But we wait for new heavens and a new earth according to his promise, in which righteousness dwells.' The duality between the old and the new earth plays a major role for me – also against the backdrop of a generation that currently calls itself 'the last' and has adopted the slogan 'There is no planet B' as its motto. In the roughly half-hour work, the soprano solo is accompanied by a solo instrument. Alongside it: the kannel, the plank zither so important to Estonian traditional music, which is closely linked to the culture of the Finno-Ugric tribes in the Baltics, Finland, and northwestern Russia. It is very delicately and very concretely connected to a region on ancient Earth. But despite its age and long history, just like the symphony orchestra and the human voice, it can always say something new.’ (Jüri Reinvere)