Love Letters, stars and Chocolate Roads
Last month, Tafelmusik co-produced a marvellous concert program, “The Galileo Project,” with The Banff Centre — an immersion in the stories, people, and times of the 16th century, through a fusion of arts, science, and culture. It was in 1609, you see, that Galileo Galilei’s first demonstration of the telescope took place, and Monteverdi’s Orfeo was published. So, 400 years later, it was a natural to jointly celebrate Galileo’s work and the music from that period. The collaboration included the Orchestra, astronomers, a stage director, a filmmaker, a set and lighting designer, astronomical photographers, and a recording engineer. It was the kind of sensory experience that gives us a context for our musical relationship with the world, and a reminder that “the music of the spheres” is not a phrase to take lightly.
This month, celebrating their 30th anniversary, and just returned from their Carnegie Hall debut, Tafelmusik features a suite from Rameau’s Dardanus and Handel’s Water Music (February 18 – 22). Website: www.tafelmusik.org / www.myspace.com/mytafelmusik
