Gupta: Song of the Earth

With “Jordens sang” (English: “The Song of the Earth”), the Norwegian composer and conductor Rolf Gupta returns to composition after a self-imposed 25-year creative hiatus. The six-movement work for soloists, mixed choir, children's choirs, and orchestra blends Western classical music with Indian musical traditions and revolves around the themes of creation, destruction, hope, and reconciliation. The music leads from near-total silence and archaic sounds to an epilogue that unfolds around a long-sustained C major chord and culminates in an atmosphere of contemplation.

Gupta also views “Jordens sang” as an engagement with the present day. The libretto draws upon sources including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Genesis, Friedrich Schiller, and Gustav Mahler, connecting these texts with questions concerning war, the environmental crisis, and human coexistence. The work was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize and the “Work of the Year” prize by the Norwegian Society of Composers.

The recording features the Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Solistkoret Ung, the Oslo Cathedral Boys' Choir, the Trefoldighet Girls’ Choir, and the Children's Chorus of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Peter Szilvay conducts the choirs, with Caroline Wettergreen, Julian Borchgrevink Næss, and Inga Lohne-Otterstad as soloists. The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra performs.