Australian Baroque: Deep Space. Photo © Brad Coleman

Space Music is a refreshing, fascinating and thought-provoking concert/lecture, melding the seemingly elements of a discussion of the planets and our solar system (which normally evokes rather more futuristic musical genres) and Baroque music in the form of a carefully curated list of early music gems.

The meeting of these two worlds is generally very successful and the instrumental soloists are in fine form. Prudence Sanders is an angelic and stylish vocal presence, and barring some early tuning issues (a near inevitability with early music ensembles), the orchestra is led with assurance and finesse by Artistic Director Helen Kruger on first violin.

Throughout the concert the audience is treated to spectacular projected images of deep space, including nebulae, comets, planets, moons and our sun, narrated knowledgeably and with enthusiasm by Dr Antony Brian.

Brian’s spoken sections are always interesting, however, I felt a greater integration of scientific and artistic/poetic thought evoked by the planets from the Baroque era would have assisted in bridging the sound, image and subject worlds a little better.