Anne Sofie von Otter and Pekka Kuusisto perform the song cycle So We Will Vanish with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on a program that includes Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Catamorphosis on January 28 and again January 29.

SO WE WILL VANISH

1. Doggerland
2. Firehawks
3. Saint Helena Olive

Music: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Royce Vavrek
Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson, Mikael Karlsson

Program notes for So We Will Vanish:

So We Will Vanish is a song cycle about natural destruction, told by three trees that have either already been obliterated or are in the process of disappearing. The title is a quotation from director Werner Herzog:
“Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There’s no doubt in my heart.”

Herzog predicts that we, like the trees and countless species before us, are well-suited for extinction. The three trees in this cycle recount the stories of their own disappearance in order to underline how natural, almost inevitable it is to cease to exist.

In Doggerland, a tree on the seabed off the English coast remembers the great landmass that once stretched across what is now ocean. This region, called Doggerland, was once inhabited by mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and lions, until rising waters swept over the land and drowned an entire ecosystem. Today the forest lies buried beneath the sea.

Firehawks refers to a species of hawk found in Australia. To flush out prey, these birds lift burning twigs from bushfires in their beaks, fly over shrubs or trees, drop the embers, and ignite new fires. The animals and insects sheltering inside are forced out, and the hawk can dive and capture them with ease. In this song, the tree sees the hawks approaching with fire in their beaks and realizes what is about to happen.

The Saint Helena Olive was a species of olive tree that disappeared from the wild around 1994 on the island of Saint Helena, its only natural habitat, leaving a single cutting alive in cultivation. In 2003, even that last tree died after a fungal infection. Despite numerous attempts to save her, extinction could not be prevented. The song ends with a mantra on her name.

The songs are dedicated to Anne Sofie von Otter and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.