“Love that moves the sun and the other stars” is a new music-and-poetry composition by the Moscow Virtuosi State Chamber Orchestra, led by Artistic Director Vladimir Spivakov. Inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, the project was more than 15 years in the making.

For seven centuries, this great work has remained a source of inspiration for artists, poets and philosophers. The Moscow Virtuosi have also chosen to pay tribute to this masterpiece of Christian literature by creating a unified dramatic canvas interwoven with music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Niccolò Paganini, Ottorino Respighi, Giacomo Puccini and Tomaso Albinoni.

At the heart of the programme is the journey of the human soul from darkness to light, from despair to transformative love, told through the language of medieval poetry and three centuries of music.

In his letter to Cangrande della Scala, Dante offers every reader a promise: “to lead those living in this life from a state of misery to a state of happiness.” In the same way, the audience follows Dante through key episodes of the poem: his encounter with Virgil, the story of Francesca da Rimini, the appearance of his beloved Beatrice, whose image the poet carried with him throughout his life, and the vision of the radiant circle in which the harmony of the universe is revealed.

A voice familiar to audiences worldwide will help listeners experience the poetry of Dante through music and draw closer to this great masterpiece. Specially recorded for the project, the voice performs excerpts from the Divine Comedy. Text and music constantly echo one another: the ominous rhythm of Hell is intensified by austere Baroque forms; the penitential movement of Purgatory is reflected in contemplative slow movements and lyrical elegies; while the culmination of Paradise is illuminated by the transparent brilliance of the string writing and the gentle radiance of the chorale prelude Jesus, Joy of Man’s Desiring.

Within the dramatic structure of the programme, the audience experiences Dante’s entire journey as a personal spiritual passage—from confusion and fear to a state of inner peace, when “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” becomes an inner source of strength and is felt as the only force that sets the universe in motion.

Programme duration: 1 hour 20 minutes.
The concert is performed without an interval.

Concept by Nikita Lebedev.
Music Director: Alexei Lundin.