Sonya & Lisa & MRC present The Goldberg Variations in Melbourne

Press - Canberra City News writes: "this performance ended too soon for the audience, who collectively held their breath until after the last notes had rung out." Pianists Sonya Lifschitz, Lisa Moore and the Melbourne Recital Centre present a "tour de force" concert with music by JS Bach, John Adams and Martin Bresnick, including a new arrangement of the Bach Goldberg Variations (arr. by Stephen Emmerson) where Moore and Lifschitz embellish, add, vary, twist, enjoy, and re-imagine the original Bach score. These Australian-American-Ukranian piano mavericks - take the stage at the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall for their Melbourne duo debut. Fierce and powerful, dynamic and exquisite, Lisa Moore and Sonya Lifschitz conjure a tapestry of sound with John Adams' driving, jazzy Hallelujah Junction, Martin Bresnick's beguiling Handwork (the Melbourne premiere), and J.S. Bach's magisterial Goldberg Variations for 2 pianos. Don't miss the opportunity to see and hear this one night only performance by two of Australia's most respected and loved musicians.
TICKETS are available on the night at the MRC box office
or
Purchase through the MRC website:
https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2018/goldberg-variations/
STUDENT RUSH TICKETS are $15 per ticket on the night at the MRC box office.
HalfTix limited tickets available at Melbourne Town Hall box office only.
PROGRAM order:
Hallelujah Junction (1996) by John Adams (b.1947)
Handwork (2014)* by Martin Bresnick (b.1946)
Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (1741) by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
(arr. Stephen Emmerson)
*Melbourne premiere
"From the hymn-like opening bars, Lifschitz and Moore were almost indivisible from each other. Bresnick’s expanded modalities canvassed a 12-tone language that was never austere, never arrogant. Artful use of sostenuto pedal (III) created watercolours of layered overtones, ringing out into the silences like white space in a painting. Reminiscent of Messiaen’s organ music, Bresnick’s work evoked spaces of churches – sotto voce utterances surfaced and disappeared again, like conversations heard from the back of pews. Even beside the forthright Adams piece and the Herculean performance of Bach to follow it was this work that seemed to capture the audience’s imagination most."
(http://citynews.com.au/2018/review-the-tough-crowd-holds-its-breath/)