For the grand opening of Interfinity, which in 2026 will be dedicated to exoplanets and the cosmos, the world-renowned flautist Maurice Steger, together with the baroque orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro, presents a program that looks back to the origins of our music – before the festival embarks on its journey into the vastness of space. What musical inventions and ideas do we want to take with us? What have we inherited from the great masters?

The program is entirely dedicated to the cosmos, as seen through the eyes of composers of that era: a time when science and art were closely intertwined. Thinkers like Kepler, Galileo, and Brahe were active at the same time, while composers such as Schütz, Monteverdi, and di Lasso translated celestial movements into sound. This fascination with the stars is reflected in works by Emilio de Cavalieri (Sinfonia dell'Intermedio – L'armonia delle sfere), Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Tarquinio Merula, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, and Georg Philipp Telemann's Die klingende Geographie (The Sounding Geography).

Even today, over 300 years later, we are still at the beginning when it comes to understanding the secrets of the universe – and feel connected to the composers of that time in their wonder and spirit of inquiry.

The evening will be opened with an address by the famous Swiss astronaut Prof. Dr. Claude Nicollier, who will share exclusive pictures and personal impressions from space in a keynote address – introducing the mysteries of the universe and at the same time drawing a connection between the festival and its journey through space (language: English).

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Before the concert and during the interval, Martin Schrader serves his biodynamic Flimmer wild wines — with names as poetic as they are idiosyncratic, such as Leftovers from Outer Space.