When German violin virtuoso Arabella Steinbacher approached Georges Lentz (b. 1965) about composing a concerto for her, Lentz “started internalising her phenomenally beautiful sound and the incredible grace of her playing … quicksilver nimbleness, weightlessness, and above all light.”

Born in Luxembourg but resident in Sydney, Australia since 1990, Lentz is also a sound artist whose collaboration with architect Glenn Murcutt produced the Cobar Sound Chapel, a permanent sonic installation in western NSW. 

Lentz cites the experience of playing his violin alone under the stars in the Australian outback as formative in the creation of To Beam in Distant Heavens…, on which he and Steinbacher collaborated extensively until its completion in 2023. As its name might suggest, this transcendent sonic construction seems for much of its existence to be hovering just out of reach in the spheres, an ephemeral dance with silence. But then, as Steinbacher relates, “it has these sudden outbursts and powerful moments, but at the same time it is completely otherworldly.” 

It shares these qualities with the other work included here, the Beethoven Violin Concerto (which Steinbacher has...