50th anniversary of the Orchestre d'Orsay

All audiences.

As part of the Téléthon, and to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Orchestre symphonique du campus d'Orsay is giving a concert with all proceeds donated to the AFM. “We have devised a chronological programme around the theme: science and music, from chaos to consciousness,” explains conductor Martin Barral, leading an ensemble of 80 musicians. “Through music, we will explore different ways of understanding the world, just as science would.” A programme that echoes the very history of the orchestra and the profiles of its instrumentalists, who include researchers, astronomers and nuclear physicists.

The concert opens with the Ouverture to Zaïs by Rameau, where “music emerges from chaos before an order takes shape”, moves through Symphony No. 2 by Borodin, a composer who was himself a chemist, and concludes with the introduction to Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, made famous by 2001: A Space Odyssey. “A work that asks an essential question: what is our place in the universe?”

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