Lost in the stars … that are aligned
16 December 2019, Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge
Well, our winter 2019 concert “Lost in the stars … that are aligned” that celebrates the sciences and arts of stars – big and small, bright and dark, sparkling, bursting, wished-upon, longed-for, lost, remembered, (re-)aligned and so on – will take place in the resonant setting of the Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, with the likeness of Isaac Newton looking on, in the evening of 16 December 2019 (which happens to be Beethoven’s Birthday!). The stars aligned so much that Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell is joining us to read poems about stars between the songs.
We are excited to be collaborating with London-based pianist Olga Stezkho who shares a love of the sciences especially astrophysics with our group’s very own Sylvia Chan. Olga is a leading interpreter of early and mid-20th century piano repertoire: acclaimed by Classical Source as “a supremely delicate master of her instrument” who possesses “an extraordinary presence” for her Wigmore Hall recital, her debut album “Eta Carinae”, with music by Scriabin and Busoni, and relating their music to physics and philosophy, was hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “an outstanding debut” and “not a record for the faint-hearted.
The 3-part programme is as follows:
Part 1: “Heavenly harmonies” (piano)
- Bach, Adagio (after Marcello’s oboe concerto), BWV 974
- Franck (arr. Bauer), Prélude, Fugue & Variation, Op.18
- Scriabin, Préludes Op.74
- Scriabin, Vers la flamme
Part 2: “Lost in the stars” (piano and songs)
- Debussy, Nuit d’étoiles
- Gounod, Le soir
- Weill, Youkali
- Weill, Lost in the stars
- Hahn, L’heure exquise
Part 3: “Stars aligned” (piano)
- Debussy, Clair de lune (from Suite Bergamasque)
- Yoshimatsu, To a disappeared Pleiade
- Rachmaninoff, Prélude Op.23, no 4
- Debussy, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut (from Images Book II)
- Scriabin, Piano sonata 10
The flyer for the concert (with programme details) is here (the “old” version here).
And here is the programme booklet.
