Tränen der Natur – Basel Sinfonietta
Overview
Intro
Concert: Tears of Nature
Vera Fischer, flute
Vivi Vassileva, percussion
Titus Engel, conductor
Basel Sinfonietta
James Dillon: “Blitzschlag”
Nina Šenk: “Changing” for Orchestra
Tan Dun: Percussion Concerto “The Tears of Nature”
The season opener is dedicated to natural phenomena: they have a fascinating yet unpredictable effect on our world and its living creatures. Three electrifying works bring the interplay of these forces to life through sound. One of them is James Dillon’s “Blitzschlag” from the 1990s, a concerto for flute and orchestra. Following “Transcendence” and “Bright Night,” it is the concluding work of his “German Triptych”—in it, the Scottish composer set to music the idea of an epiphany emerging from darkness.
The work by Slovenian composer Nina Šenk takes a less abrupt approach. “Changing” begins with a single note, to which new material is slowly and steadily “attached.” Composed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the piece explores instability and change. Throughout, the monotonous underlying idea remains recognizable but is never identical. Moving quietly forward, the piece rises and falls like breaths—thus, with its diverse percussion elements, the orchestra becomes, so to speak, an organic respiratory tract.
The destructive, tragic power of nature is expressed in Tan Dun’s percussion concerto “The Tears of Nature,” which addresses three real-life natural disasters. The first movement, “Threat of Nature,” is inspired by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and is dedicated to the many people affected by it. According to the composer, nature’s brutality is followed by regret—the tears of nature. The devastating tsunami in Japan inspired the second movement, “Tears of Nature,” which is permeated by musical depictions of water. The third movement, “Dance of Nature,” draws on Hurricane Sandy in New York and highlights the resilience of its residents. For despite its tragic themes, the entire work never loses sight of a fundamental message: the strength of the human spirit, which “strives for life, fights, and dances with nature.”
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
| Contact address |
Basel Sinfonietta
Schützenmattstrasse 43 4051 Basel +41 (0)61 315 10 30 info@baselsinfonietta.ch |
|---|---|
| Event Homepage | https://www.baselsinfonietta.ch |
| Opening hours |
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
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Event dates
- 27 September 2026
Kulturhaus Bider & Tanner Aeschenvorstadt 2 4051 Basel +41 61 206 99 96 Regular Hours Mon–Sat 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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