Set amid actual relics of Roman antiquity in some of Australia’s most stunning antiquities museum collections including the Chau Chak Wing Museum at University of Sydney, the Melbourne Hellenic Museum, each concert is an evocative and awareness-heightening experience taking the listener back two thousand years to the Roman settlements of antiquity along the Danube River in the time of the rule of philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. The musical sketches on the violin resound and blend with short readings from Aurelius’ “Meditations” as we become acutely aware of how one man shaped his character to seek to bring peace and understanding to his fellow humanity, to practice and teach restraint and self-control, moderation of the appetites, to resist anger, corruption and selfishness, and instead embrace altruism and selfless service to the world’s betterment - the virtues of the philosophy of Stoicism.

Marcus Aurelius's philosophy teaches that true happiness comes from aligning our actions with virtue, not from external conditions or the actions of others. Aurelius saw goodness of character as a developmental undertaking, necessary for every individual, and that goodness of character is a reasonable expectation of leadership in a civil society - that one must develop quality of character to behave well under stress and aggravating circumstances of life, just like any other endeavour.

Guenther draws the connection between Aurelius and the modern world: “The science is that unless a person works on bettering themselves in their character, they will act out destructive intensely personal needs as they seek to compensate for their sense of lack within. When this happens in any sphere of relationship - with self, family, community or in leadership - the results are inevitably disharmony through deceit, selfishness, corruption, hate, anger, jealousy and violence. So self work at all times is required. It is clear from his writings that Aurelius understood this.”

Featuring electric violin, electronics, live looping, narration and astro-photography, Cosmology takes us on an epic journey in space and time, to discover that we on earth, spinning in our solar system and galaxy, are just shining specks in vast space just as all the other star systems are. We are ourselves very much part of what is ‘out there’.

With a large screen immersion experience of beautiful astro-photography images of the night skies taken by some of the world’s best astro-photographers, Guenther turns the violin into an extraordinary vehicle for his art, evoking through sound and music an inner sensory journey, from the very origins of time to futuristic visions of the universe and our momentary place in it.

“The concert is a metaphor,” Rupert said. “We look out at the stars beyond our horizon and see it as something that is out there. In reality we are just as much out there, just specks in the vast universe like everything else. We are not the centre of anything. We need to look beyond our own self-centric perspective.

Cosmology lets the electric violin paint on a huge canvas of the universe. It uses music and sound in the same way painters use colour. The musician for this show is like an astronaut, sharing his view from his spaceship, except the view is not just of physical things like star systems, it is of the entire span of time itself, it’s a feeling thing, and how in that we find ourselves as part of something much greater.”

These two sonatas were part of a series of 5 new albums of the artist’s improvisations commissioned and recorded by ABC Classic FM. Each sonata is an intimate story that depicts imaginary letters from the artist in 21st century Australia sent back in time to Austrian musician Joseph Haydn in the 18th century Austro-Hungarian court of Esterhazy. The music is full of sunlight, appreciation and hope, yet tenderly handles moments of despair, the winter darkness, and delicate new growth with great compassion.

“I love the solo violin improvisations, the sound is a very beautiful and highly personal voice. It’s akin to a public reading of literature or poetry” said Rupert. “As the artist you are the only actor on the stage as it were, yet the richness, complexity and depth of the stories in the music are as present as ever.

“The great intimacy of the music in New Letters To Esterhazy is especially poignant for me, having lived and studied in Austria, and played concerts in the same concert room Haydn gave his performances in at what was once the Austro-Hungarian Court of Esterhazy.”

The work for violin alone represents the eruption and complete explosion of the entire Island of Krakatoa on the 27th August 1883, and the energy of shockwaves, volcanic ash and huge Tsunami it sent out into the world that day.

Set in 19 short segments, the music, soundscapes and environmental noise ranges from the quiet contemplative beauty of the Sunda Straights of Indonesia prior to the eruption, to the ferocious and abrupt, representing the warnings, premonitions, tremors, and final eruption of the volcano.

The Krakatoa work was created through extensive research in archives of illustrations, historic accounts, documents and scientific data detailing the tremors, smoke and lava ejected from the volcano, and as much depicts a connection to European art through the changes in the sunlight all over the world from the volcanic ash in the atmosphere for several years after the eruption, documented by European painters like William Ascroft in England, Edvard Munch in Norway and many others, featuring startling red tones in the sunsets depicted in their paintings at the time.

The world premiere took place in the highly atmospheric WA Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle Western Australia, under the remnants of the hill of the 17th century Dutch ship Batavia in 2024.