The intangible, the immeasurable, the unfathomable grandeur of the universe, celestial bodies moving through a cosmos so far removed from earthly existence: for millennia, man has looked upward in wonder, searching for inspiration and meaning. It was Pythagoras who figured out that the movements of sun, moon and planets each produce their own tones in celestial harmonies. And later, in the Renaissance, Johannes Kepler linked the perfect geometry of the heavenly bodies to the most ingenious polyphony of his time. For him, this was also the ultimate reaching out to God, who created the relationship between geometry, astronomy and music in all perfection.
Harmony of the Spheres features musical gems of the Renaissance that emulate these celestial ideals. The music, by Josquin des Prez, Lambert de Salve, Jan Pietersz. Sweelinck and Orlando di Lasso, is combined with sounds of modern times in works by Giuliano Bracci, Wouter Snoei and Seung-Won Oh, who in turn were also inspired by the celestial spheres and their mysterious perfection. The warm sound of the trombone and the pure sound of human voices will fill the halls from all sides in a heavenly concert to dream away at.
'This program is not about complicated musical ideas or styles; it is an intuitive experience that is of all times. When you look at the stars you often realise how small and insignificant we are here on earth.'
- Sebastiaan Kemner
A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
- Robert Frost
