CANBERRA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Sitting in front of the Mount Stromlo Observatory, the audiences listened to the music of Bach played by different artists and echoed the performance to its peak with lasting applause despite on a chilly Autumn day.
The concert on Wednesday, namely "Bach on the Mountain," is one of the 43 events of the 25th Canberra International Music Festival (CIMF) which opened in early this month featuring Bach's music as one of its themes.
The Observatory sat at 780 meters above sea level, with a whole picture view of the city of Canberra. Various musicians played violin, piano as well as quartet in different sites of the Observatory such as Moon Sculpture and Yale Telescope, giving the audiences a unique experience.
"The festival has a really strong tradition of presenting music in all kinds of sites. The importance also is that the festival showcases the city, many sites and buildings, architectures and great buildings," Artistic Director Roland Peelman said on Wednesday.
Peelman said choosing the Observatory as a location to play a concert also can link science and arts together.
Professor Walter Stibbs, a late astronomer in the 1940s, loved the music of Bach. And he was in the habit of accompanying his celestial viewings with the organ music of Bach and sometimes used the gramophone on the mountain as he was observing the telescope.
His wife, 93, donated all the 1940s' records of Bach to the observatory to keep the connection of science and music.
"It's wonderful to be here and play in this amazing landscape. We have never played like this," Tomas Peralta, the singer of a young musical group formed with musicians from Chile and Colombia, said.
They performed two songs on this mountain concert, and it even rained while they were performing.
"We didn't know what to expect before. It's beyond our expectation. It's cold outside but it's part of the charm," Peralta said.
