“Celebrating the life and career of soprano Merlyn Quaife AM, champion of Australian Art Song” was the subtitle of Songmakers Australia’s latest concert in a full-house Primrose Potter Salon. In 2013, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “significant service to music”, and every member of the audience would have been aware of the huge contribution she has made – not only to Australian Art Song, but also as an educator and a performer of a vast array of vocal music requiring a superlative vocal technique and unrivalled musicality.
Need a soprano for an atonal extravaganza? Ask Merlyn Quaife. Need a totally reliable soprano, who can be heard above an orchestra and chorus in a vocally challenging role? Merlyn Quaife. Many of us have been dazzled by her virtuosity in Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and equally impressed by her extraordinarily moving interpretation of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und –leben, From Early Music, through Bach, Haydn, Handel, Donizetti and Wagner to John Adams, Ligeti and a host of Australian composers of New Music, she has continued to astonish us with her versatility for more than five decades. She has also inspired many composers to create splendid works specifically designed for her talents.
This celebratory 70th birthday recital attracted several notable Australian composers wishing to pay tribute to Merlyn’s achievements and hear their works sung by the artist for whom they were written. For a one-hour program it must have been difficult to choose the most appropriate pieces from the many possibilities. One of the guiding principles would have been the text as it has been a crucially important element of her life as a singer, and it was clear that text was also a creative wellspring for the four chosen composers. The program notes briefly summarised the significance of each selection.
Johanna Selleck wrote, “I often have a particular performer in mind in all my compositions, and in writing for soprano, it has often been Merlyn”. Regarding her group of four songs that comprise The Prospect and the Bower of Bliss, Selleck described her fascination for playwright and poet Aphra Behn, who was also a spy for Charles II and spent time in a debtor’s prison, adding “I love the imagery and rhythm of her texts”. ‘Tis all eternal Spring was a gentle, languid opening to the recital, the piano steady while the voice wove the text describing nature’s awakening in sinuous lines. Merlyn’s ability to negotiate huge upward leaps and sing soft, sustained high notes with ease was a feature of this song and many that followed. The beauty of the final note of this song and her capacity to achieve a finely graduated diminuendo were a constant pleasure. After the bright tuneful syncopations of Fountains, wandering brooks and the pastoral expressiveness of the brief The verdant banks no other prints retain, it seemed fitting that the sensuous A thousand gloomy walks, with its rippling accompaniment, ended with the softest of pianissimos. This fine collection of songs has been recorded by Tall Poppies and deserves repeated listening. Although Merlyn Quaife has excellent diction and is both vocally and physically an expressive singer, it is sometimes difficult to pick up all the words of a text, especially in the higher registers, so having access to the text can deepen appreciation of a work.
Poems by Judith Wright provide the text for five songs comprising Richard Mills’ Here where Death and Life are Met. More atonal in nature than Selleck’s work, it explores our response to the natural world in songs of contrasting character. The glowing warmth of The Orange Tree led to the assertive chords, passion and gentle ending of Flame tree in a Quarry. Story-telling drama featured in O Where does the Dancer Dance, with its repeated, busy piano figure, ending, once again, on a quieter note. Dark tolling piano chords that moved to a happier lyricism in Darkness where I Find my Sight completed the set. We had been taken on a journey where Merlyn created and held a distinctive atmosphere for each song. It was quite literally given the thumbs up by Mills as the audience applauded.
Merlyn’s devotion to Lieder and links to Germany have been major aspects of her artistic life. This relationship found expression in two songs by young composer and cellist Luke Severn. He says he wrote them “with Merlyn’s incomparable voice ringing in my ears … I decided to set these texts because I know how much she enjoys singing in German”. A deep connection to the language is one he shares, and his setting of poetry by Goethe for Wanders Nachtlied I and II were moments of serenity and beauty. Reminiscent of Richard Strauss in style, the text (printed in German and English in the program) was conveyed with the utmost sensitivity and beauty of tone.
A change of pace came with Keith Humble’s Eight Cabaret Songs, settings of poems by W. B. Yeats, Robert Graves, A. D. Hope, Wordsworth and Auden. Short, melodious and generally upbeat, they enabled Merlyn to display her talent for comedy, most notably in Drinking Song. The ominous dark chord that ended the program for Tell me the truth about love was the culmination of some great story-telling in fast waltz time.
Two encores signalled further important elements of Merlyn’s career. The first, Gordon Kerry’s Night after bushfire, part of his Through the Fire cantata from 2003, is one of the pieces she has sung most often. Roger Heagney, who has shared in her musical life at St Francis’ Church, composed the final item. The Little Flower, set to a poem by Michael Leunig, is an appealingly simple song with gently chiming chords and harp-like piano flourishes.
As a highly skilled, sensitive accompanist and Merlyn’s Songmakers Australia collaborator for the past ten years, Andrea Katz was the perfect partner for this celebration.
The prolonged standing ovation at the end was not only an acknowledgement of Merlyn Quaife’s outstanding contribution to Australia’s cultural life, it also reflected an appreciation of her undiminished artistry and a vocal technique that will endure for many years to come. Brava Merlyn!
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Heather Leviston reviewed Songmakers Australia’s “The Australian Connection”, celebrating the life and career of Merlyn Quaife at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon on July 20, 2022.
