American Classical Orchestra Takes Off With ‘Astronomical’ Evening of Astronomers and Planets

Astronomy, the science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos, is one of the oldest natural sciences. Early man recorded observations of the night sky in multiple civilizations ranging from the Egyptians to the Greeks, Chinese, and Maya.

Connections between astronomy and music have been discussed since the time of the ancient Greeks and there exists a body of classical music inspired by astronomy that has connections to real science, not just the casual use of a term or two in the title.
The American Classical Orchestra last week presented a performance of four such works, adding whimsy by using “Astronomical” as the name of the concert (most concerts do not have titles in the manner of a play or musical, I should note).
Anchored by Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony Nr. 41, the evening was notable for what it did – and did not – include in the program.
The American Classical Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall
In addition to the Jupiter, the program included the rarely performed Oboe Concerto No. 1 by Sir Wilhelm Herschel, the German-British astronomer and composer, known for, among other things, having discovered the planet Uranus, which at first was named Herschel, and discovering infrared radiation.
My connection to Sir Wilhelm is stronger than most people’s as my family’s art and photography collection, which included thousands of documents and manuscripts relating to the history of photography, held over 30 Herschel manuscripts including a number of citations and awards presented to him from various scientific bodies across Europe. Herschel’s son, Sir John Frederick William Herschel, experimented with early photographic processes and, in 1839, independently of William Henry Fox Talbot, Herschel also invented a photographic process using sensitized paper. It was Herschel who coined the use of the terms photography , positive , and negative to refer to photographic images.
Perhaps to the surprise of some, the program did not include Gustav Holst’s popular symphonic suite, The Planets, because it draws its inspiration from the astrological, and not astronomical, characteristics of the worlds in the solar system.
If you’re not familiar with the American Classical Orchestra, it is one of the leading period instrument ensembles in the United States and performs many of its concerts in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

The concert opened with Johan Daniel Berlin’s Concerto à 5 in A Major which was quickly followed by William Herschel’s Oboe Concerto Nr. 1.
Berlin, a German-Norwegian rococo composer, was the founder of the Royal Norwegian Society of Science and Letters and captain of the local fire brigade. During his lifetime, he did make a series of astronomical observations but otherwise was a scientist of relatively little note. Few of his compositions survive and the Concerto à 5, with Crawford at the harpsicord and concertmaster Jessica Park playing the lead, served as a kind of appetizer to the rest of the program.
Herschel was indeed a scientist and astronomer but one could argue he was a composer of little note. Nonetheless, the piece allowed soloist Gonzalo Ruiz to perform with his baroque-style instrument, offering us a rare look at truly great oboe virtuosity, and Ruiz’ breath support that made the oboe lines soar into the heavens, perhaps another justification for the piece’s inclusion in the program and answers the question Maestro Crawford posed to the audience: “Was there anything about that piece that made you think he was an astronomer?”
Johann Sebastian Bach’s second surviving son, C.P.E. Bach, was an influential musician who composed at the paradigm shift between the baroque style of his father and the classical period that followed him. The Symphony in B Minor is an enjoyably short frantic work with little development, sudden contrasts and very dramatic melodic lines. Perhaps Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach gazed up at the heavens from time to time but he – like Mozart – was not an astronomer.
Finally, the anchor of the program, Mozart’s Symphony Nr. 41, is a work I consider to be the greatest orchestral composition of the world which preceded the American and French revolutions.
The piece, which includes the rather ingenious use of 17 two-part motives, gained the name “Jupiter” after the composer’s death and it as likely bestowed by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon.
In an article about the piece, Sir George Grove, founding editor of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, wrote that “it is for the finale that Mozart has reserved all the resources of his science, and all the power, which no one seems to have possessed to the same degree with himself, of concealing that science, and making it the vehicle for music as pleasing as it is learned. Nowhere has he achieved more.”
THE DETAILS
“Astronomical” – the American Classical Orchestra
Johan Daniel Berlin     Concerto á 5 in A Major
William Herschel    Oboe Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe
C.P.E. Bach    Symphony in B minor
Mozart    Symphony 41 in C  ‘Jupiter’
Performed on May 8, 2024  at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
 
(Photo: Accura Media Group)