What do we encounter when we listen to music?
More often than not, it’s an experience that slips past the grasp of language—a passing spark that must be felt rather than explained.
 

That elusive spark lies at the heart of For Reasons Unknown, a brand-new commission by Peder Barratt-Due. Borrowing its title from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot – specifically its character Lucky’s whirlwind soliloquy – the work hovers in the twilight between sense and nonsense. In this realm of flickering meaning, Barratt-Due crafts a shifting musical landscape, inviting listeners to navigate a living map of tension and radiance.

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In Joanna Bailie’s Residue, the focus shifts to time itself. Pre-recorded sounds are stretched, echoed and eroded until they hover between tangible shapes and shimmering after-images, fusing with live strings to create a dream-like resonance—sonic ghosts that refuse to fade.

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The concert concludes with the duo Tlön – violinist Sara Övinge and cellist Gregor Riddell – in close collaboration with musicians from the NCO. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ twisting realms where the real and the imagined entwine, Tlön reshapes familiar musical fragments into evocative, striking new forms. Their performance invites us to listen with all our senses – embracing experiences that can’t be explained, but felt.

 

Artistic Director for the evening is Pekka Kuusisto. 

 

This program is curated by Pekka Kuusisto and Sara Övinge.