“When composer Iman Habibi traveled from his home in Toronto to Philadelphia for the world premiere of ‘Jeder Baum spricht’ (‘Every tree speaks’) last spring, he never imagined that the Philadelphia Orchestra would be playing his piece to empty seats,” writes A.Z. Madonna in Wednesday’s (2/24) Boston Globe. “His relentlessly hopeful piece … was written as a meditation on climate change but now resonated amid a new crisis. More recently, the Boston Symphony Orchestra paired ‘Jeder Baum spricht’ with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastoral.’ Both pieces can be heard in the second online concert of this month’s Andris Nelsons-conducted ‘The Spirit of Beethoven’ series.” In an interview, Habibi speaks about common threads between Beethoven and climate change; how the virtual premiere of “Jeder Baum spright” in Philadelphia surpassed expectations with more than 350,000 views; and connections between responses to COVID-19 and the climate crisis. Says Habibi, “In my piece, I wanted to allow listeners to see the symphony from a contemporary lens. I thought if Beethoven was alive today, and he wanted to say something, given his love for nature, he probably would have written something about climate change.”
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