In our first Bach, the Universe and Everything Sunday morning of the new year, Joanne Wheeler MBE talks about the urgent work of protecting the surprisingly limited space around our Earth for future generations, with a contemplative cantata from Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment.

‘My sighs, my tears can not be counted, when one daily encounters despair and the anguish does not fade’. In this dark-toned cantata Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen (BWV 13), Bach begins with a very human lament, the feeling of hopelessness, and asking the question where we may find hope for the future.

Humans have now made near space so much part of our earthly realm that concerns are rapidly growing about our environmental impact beyond our planetary boundaries. Joanne Wheeler speaks on bringing together global voices from across government, academia, industry and business.

About Bach, the Universe and Everything

This is a concert series with a difference. Across six Sunday morning events, we explore the human desire to understand our place in the cosmos, guided by the work of JS Bach – composer and intergalactic genius – through his 200 cantatas. As NASA shares images from the very first moments of time, we invite you to join us on a cosmic journey: each event is built around a Bach cantata and a talk from a guest scientist, writer or broadcaster, alongside choral and instrumental music.

This performance will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

‘He was wrong to think he could now forget that the big, hard, oily, dirty, rainbow-hung Earth on which he lived was a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot lost in the unimaginable infinity of the Universe.’

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy