Canzone: Sweet is the Torment
MERLYN QUAIFE, soprano
ALEXANDRA SHERMAN, mezzo-soprano
LAILA ENGLE, flutes
KYLIE MELVILLE, percussion
SONYA LIFSCHITZ, piano, concept, director
PROGRAM
MONTEVERDI (ARR. P. SARCICH) / Con Che Soavita
SCELSI / Hyxos, movement 1
MONTEVERDI (ARR. T. MUNRO) / Lamento della Ninfa
CRUMB / Makrokosmos Book I: Love-Death Music
MONTEVERDI (ARR. SARCICH) / Lamento d'Arianna
SAARIAHO / Si Dolce è il Tormento
MONTEVERDI (ARR. P. SARCICH) /Si Dolce è il Tormento
BACH (ARR. J. BRAHMS and E. MORENO) / Chaconne in D minor
MONTEVERDI (ARR. P. SARCICH) / Pur ti Miro, Pur ti Godo
“Lifschitz’s Bach displayed such command that it was difficult to believe that only her left hand was involved. Warmth, power and generosity of spirit could all be heard in a performance requiring a great deal of stamina.” – Classical Melbourne
Sweet is the Torment is an impassioned musical journey as words, sounds, and images collide and coalesce.
In 2015, artistic director of Melbourne’s iconic fortyfivedownstairs Mary Lou Jelbart approached Press, Play, co-directed by pianist Sonya Lifschitz and flautist Lina Andanovska, to curate a musical program in response to the exhibition titled Canzone: Music as Storytelling as part of Melbourne International Arts Festival. The exhibition featured a series of enigmatic, monumentally proportioned and exquisitely beguiling prints by the Italian-Australian artist Angela Cavalieri, created during a residency in Venice and inspired by music and text of Monteverdi. In conceiving this program, we wanted to evoke the mythical nature of Angela’s work, untethered from time and place, equal measure ancient and modern, specific and abstract, intimate and bold.
Taking the sensuous splendour of Claudio Monteverdi’s madrigals and the sumptuous monumentality of Angela Cavalieri’s linocut prints as point of departure, Sweet is the Torment waves a musical journey in time from the exquisite beauty of High Renaissance, via the liturgical purity of Baroque, to the unpredictable whimsy of Modernity. As the conversation between music and visual imagery unfolds, the past and present speak to each other of timelessness and continuity. The program pairs Claudio Monteverd’s Si dolce è il tormento (So Sweet is the Torment) with Kaija Saariaho’s work for speaking flutist based on the same text; re-imagines J.S. Bach’s iconic Chaconne from the D minor Violin Partita for piano (left hand) and voices; makes a detour to George Crumb’s mythical MAKROKOSMOS for piano and Giacinto Scelsi’s Hyxos for the haunting sounds of flute and percussion; and concludes with the sublime finale of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. Thus, as canonic works of the past are re-interpreted through the prism of modernity, the contemporary masterpieces look into the mirror of centuries past.
Sweet is the Torment was commissioned by fortyfivedownstairs and toured Melbourne International Arts Festival, Port Fairy Spring Festival, and Melbourne Recital Centre.
“Her commitment and technical brilliance shone in George Crumb’s Makrokosmos and the arrangement of J. S. Bach’s Chaconne in D minor.” – Classical Melbourne
“It was almost as if she were summoning mystical beings as she hovered over the piano, the text an incantation.” – Classical Melbourne
“It is heartening to see that Press, Play’s initiative, creativity, skill and artistry have attracted an increasingly large band of followers. Contemporary music has a bright future while we have ensembles such as this.” – Classical Melbourne
★★★★ ½ “Lifschitz was passionate and articulate. ... A densely rich experience that went well beyond the literal" – Classic Melbourne
A piano, a virtuoso, and a five-part musical portrait gallery where archival video, narrative and music collide in an interconnecting tapestry of stories celebrating discovery.
Pianist Sonya Lifschitz and composer Robert Davidson create a series of musical portraits spanning centuries of female artists, scientists and leaders. This compelling new work from the creators of Stalin's Piano waves a complex, interconnected tapestry of stories through the recorded words of some of our greatest voices and creators, including figures as diverse as Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo, Dame Nellie Melba, Patti Smith, Malouma, Michelle Obama, Julia Gillard and Nina Simone. Sonya blends her own voice with these recordings, bringing to life stories from a thousand years ago, through to her own Ukrainian grandmother and great aunt recounting their escape from Kyiv during the Nazi bombings and massacres.
Remnants of these extraordinary lives are placed, as precious objects, into frames - musical frames provided by Sonya's piano and derived by Davidson from each person's spoken intonation, fostering hearing the inherent melody and rhythm in the voices.
So much Myself, Piano Portraits is a stunning original collection which probes the big questions of our time and celebrates stories of people bringing their fullest selves to the challenges of convention, danger, inertia and prejudice.
Premiering at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall and Adelaide Festival, the work toured major Australian venues and won the 2023 UNSW ‘Creative Work of the Year’ Award.
“Lifschitz’s Bach displayed such command that it was difficult to believe that only her left hand was involved. Warmth, power and generosity of spirit could all be heard in a performance requiring a great deal of stamina.” - Classical Melbourne
“Her commitment and technical brilliance shone in George Crumb’s Makrokosmos and the arrangement of J. S. Bach’s Chaconne in D minor.” - Classical Melbourne
“It was almost as if she were summoning mystical beings as she hovered over the piano, the text an incantation.” - Classical Melbourne
“It is heartening to see that Press, Play’s initiative, creativity, skill and artistry have attracted an increasingly large band of followers. Contemporary music has a bright future while we have ensembles such as this.” - Classical Melbourne