BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
In the Japanese art of kintsugi, a broken piece of pottery is not discarded, but instead repaired with precious materials. Chipped edges are filled with lacquer; cracks are joined with gold.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s concert Joined with Gold honours the spirit of kintsugi through its performance of A Sutured World. It’s a cello concerto from composer Liza Lim who believes that when something broken is remade, “it becomes more beautiful”.
Liza’s new work explores the “complementary relationship between brokenness and healing” — the inspiration behind its evocative title.
“To ‘suture’ in English means to sew the body. It’s what surgeons do, and that also creates scarring. So for me, there’s a connection between the wound, scarring, and healing – or illumination.”
Letting in the light
The Melbourne composer follows in the footsteps of artists who came before her, “working with the same metaphorical world that many poets have worked with, and singers [as well as] the Japanese artform”.
The first movement of her concerto is called take this broken wing… and is a reference to the song Blackbird by Paul McCartney; he sings of healing and learning to fly.
When thinking about the themes of her music, Liza also recalls the famous lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem – there’s a “crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”.
“It’s something I’ve always found really intriguing, this relationship — the dark and the light, the scars and the new life.”
The following movement Chrysalis represents a transition from a “despairing state to something very beautiful”, while the third Sutra gives the cello a “chanting, ritual figure”. The word ‘sutra’ in Sanskrit means to sew, returning to Liza’s ideas of sewing to repair and create.
The concerto’s fourth movement Simon says: Alle Vögel fliegen hoch takes its name from the popular children’s game: “There’s a moment where the cellist does something and the orchestra has to copy…it’s as basic and silly as that, but it’s really funny.”
“By the end, you get this sense: ‘Oh, the world in all its absurdity and craziness and goodness and darkness continues turning’.”
“I’d love you to write a piece”
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, of which Liza is this year’s Composer in Residence, co-commissioned the concerto alongside several orchestras and arts organisations across Europe. But it was initiated by chance: cellist Nicolas Altstaedt heard one of her works on the radio, and immediately reached out to Liza to say: “I’d love you to write a piece.”
Nicolas will play the cello solo in the concerto’s Australian premiere with the MSO, having performed its world premiere last October with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
“It’s something that flowed with a lot of its own kinds of energy,” Liza says of the project.
She looks forward to its local performance by musicians she describes as her peers: “It’s really lovely to have my hometown orchestra play my work.”
Liza has also curated the MSO’s upcoming Metropolis Festival featuring her own Sappho/Bioluminescence alongside more music from Australian composers including Holly Harrison, Ella Macens, Fiona Hill, Jessica Wells, William Barton and Matthew Hindson, among others.
“I’m very focused, and keen to support the scene and fellow composers.”
Hear the MSO present the Australian premiere of Liza Lim’s concerto in Joined with Gold, 7.30pm on 6 and 8 March, Hamer Hall.
The 2025 Metropolis Festival will be performed on 16 and 17 April, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Images supplied.
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