Festival summer
Klaus Mäkelä
Johanna Wallroth Jean Sibelius
Gustav Mahler

Rolf Gupta (b. 1967) is one of the key Norwegian conductors of our time, and has also been active as a composer from the end of the 1980s. He wrote Earth's song as a commissioned work for the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra's 100th anniversary, and the composer, orchestra and conductor Peter Szilvay was awarded the Critics' Prize 2020 for the work and the performance.

Jean Sibelius' (1865-1957) Symphony no. 7 from 1924 is the composer's last symphony and the only one consisting of one continuous movement. Symphony no. 7 is a kind of cross between a symphony and a symphonic poem - the musical ideas change gradually as if they live a life on their own. The music moves through an enormous range of timbres, tempos, and moods through eleven distinct parts, culminating in what Klaus Mäkelä calls «one of the most beautiful endings there is.»

Gustav Mahler wrote his Symphony no. 4 based on one of his songs, Das himmlische Leben - "The heavenly life." The lyrics are a child's description of heaven, found in one of Mahler's most important sources of inspiration: Des knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poetry. The song, which the soprano performs in the fourth movement, is the foundation for the three previous movements. Symphony no. 4 is Mahler's shortest and brightest symphony and has been an entry gate for many Mahler enthusiasts since its premiere in 1901.