...im Zündholz der Olivenbäume...

‘The symphonic choral work uses various poems by the Syrian poet Dr Wahid Nader, who has long lived in Magdeburg,
Dr Wahid Nader, who has lived in Magdeburg for a long time, allows a refugee to enter into a dialogue with their Syrian homeland during their flight, which takes them via Syria/Lesbos/Magdeburg. Their ‘part’ is sung by a children's choir. The answers of the homeland to the recurring, varied question: ‘Where will you spin me a cocoon in which I can die?’ are counterpointed by various song fragments by the poet Sappho, sung by a chamber choir in the original Aeolian dialect. The children's choir's answers seem like translations of the ancient Greek songs. Although they are loosely connected to them, as if commenting on them, they are rather to be understood as relics of a time in which a significant part of European culture took root in the same place as Sappho and her circle, wafting into the tragic present of the island of Lesbos with its refugee camps.’ (Marius Felix Lange)