Rendez‐vous

Jean-Michel Jarre's electronic epics have always tended toward the spacey, but Rendez-Vous goes clear into the cosmos. Designed for play onboard space shuttle missions, the six-part suite has a weightless, soaring quality appropriate for that otherworldly setting. The final section is dedicated to Jarre's friend Ron McNair, an astronaut who died in the 1986 Challenger explosion. With a haunting saxophone solo atop a synthesized heartbeat, the piece becomes an emotional memorial and a somber conclusion to the interplanetary trip.