The winter darkness is creeping up on us. The storms are increasing in strength, and even our little corner of the globe is being swept away. Doubt and anxiety creep in, but the answers are few. Where words and thoughts fall short, music has a language that reaches beyond the outer limits of our comprehension; to the infinite space of the universe and the unfathomable chambers of the soul.
At this concert, Ars Nova creates space for the big questions. We move through history from the 15th century to today, through faith and doubt, love and loss, harmony and dissonance. Musical styles and worldviews contrast, but the questions are the same. At the heart of the concert is Bernd Franke's Rilke Madrigale , based on fragments of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke's Duineser Elegie . "Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?" - "Who, if I screamed, heard me among the orders of the angels?" asks Rilke, and we recognize in ourselves this eternal balancing act between powerlessness and hope .
