The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter l Melbourne Recital Centre

Celebrating 200 years of Franz Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill), Songmakers Australia deserves our thanks for reminding us just how heart wrenchingly poignant this masterpiece can be. As core members of an ensemble that is a specialist in Lieder, pianist Andrea Katz and tenor Brenton Spiteri are well placed to do justice to Schubert’s remarkable song cycle.

… he sang Des Baches Lied (The Stream’s Lullaby) superbly, soft high notes rendered with great control. An exquisite pianissimo ending, as the brook takes the boy’s body, was followed by a long pause. The audience sat stunned, overwhelmed by the sadness of the song and Schubert’s own fate, until with an outburst of cheering and clapping they accorded this wonderful interpretation a standing ovation.

“I’m glad I wasn’t the only one taking out a tissue”, remarked one member of the audience as we made our way out of the Salon. It indicated a common reaction to what was a profoundly moving experience.

Classic Melbourne - July 20 2023. Reviewed by Heather Leviston

The Australian Connection l Melbourne Recital Centre

“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.

…

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!

Classic Melbourne - July 20 2022. Reviewed by Heather Leviston

Recital l Melbourne Digital Concert Hall

Even in a time of artistic hiatus, inspiration can be found in places never intended to serve such a purpose.

Songmakers Australia was to perform Schubert’s final song cycle, Schwanengesang, with music set to Heine’s poems, in Melbourne last week. Forced into a non-traditional setting, pianist Andrea Katz and bass-baritone Nicholas Dinopoulos created a new program just for this performance, in the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall.

This is not singer and accompanist; art song is comprised of two equally important instruments. With utmost precision and care, Katz deftly captured an enormous array of colours, from the robust personality of Schumann’s Die beiden Grenadiere to the stark cold of Schubert’s Am Meer. After such turbulent emotion, the simplicity and softness of her subdued opening bars to Vaughan Williams’ Silent Noon was tear-inducing.

Dinopoulos is a gifted word-painter, particularly in German repertoire, and his bass-baritone aptly captures the crisp bitterness Schubert requires. At his most impressive in Der Doppelganger, where, as the protagonist finds the man who haunts his dreams is himself, Dinopoulos sang with a darkness and burnished power that you just know would have knocked you back in your seat had you been in the room.

The Age - 5 April 2020. Reviewed by Bridget Davies ★★★★

Schubertiade l Hawthorn Arts Centre

The program of Swan Song was well-balanced, and included solo lieder, duets, a trio consisting of voice and clarinet accompanied by piano, and a quartet and sextet for the finale. The vocal performances were universally strong, with the developing artists holding their own alongside the more seasoned performers. An absolute highlight was Der Hirt auf dem Fels (The Shepard on the Rock) which saw Merlin Quaife perform beside clarinetist Blake Cutler. There was lovely communication between the two performers, as they took turns carrying the dominant melodic line, and each had a chance to shine as a solo performers. As a vocal student and all-round singing nerd, listening to Merlyn Quaife was like witnessing a master at work. Her command of her bright and agile soprano voice was astounding. Her use of dynamics, ranging from a fierce fortissimo to a delicate pianissimo, was enormously exciting to witness.

The Heine songs from the song cycle Schwanengesang (Swan song) were also dramatically and musically exciting, with Nick Dinopoulos showcasing an impressive depth to his bass-baritone voice.

If you want to experience the magic of music composed by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and many of the other composers of art song, the concerts held by Songmakers Australia are a fantastic place to start.

Fever Pitch Magazine - 31 October 2019. Reviewed by Stella Joseph-Jarecki

Of Love l Peninsula Summer Music Festival

“Earlier on Saturday afternoon, another facet of this festival's identity was on display. Soprano Merlyn Quaife and pianist Andrea Katz of Songmakers Australia offered a fascinating program of lieder and contemporary Australian art song, including a world premiere by Roger Heagney. This wasn't the typical scenario of new music being smuggled onto a classical program next to crowd-pleasers, but rather an intimate afternoon of musical storytelling, care of homegrown creativity and blue-sky programming.

Particularly of note, joined by the festival's director Benjamin Opie on oboe, a thrilling account of Margaret Sutherland's 1938 penned ‘The Orange Tree’ was a revelation; a true Australian masterwork that deserves many more outings.”

The Sydney Morning Herald - 7 January 2019. Reviewed by Maxim Boon

Russian Lullaby | Melbourne Recital Centre

"The most significant quality of this cycle’s rendition was its non-stop nature, the songs merging with chilling effectiveness and bite as their surfaces cracked to reveal a nightmare world where words cannot be taken at face value and an eminently singable, even popular-sounding music veers on collapse into a dirge...
And for those sad moral delinquents who think politics and music don’t mix, they should look on this wrenching song-cycle and (hopefully) despair. Songmakers Australia has informed my year significantly by presenting it and accomplishing the undertaking with admirable fidelity."

O'Connell the Music - 6 October 2017. Reviewed by Clive O’Connell

Viola Romance | Melbourne Recital Centre

"Founder of Songmakers Australia, pianist Andrea Katz contributed to each segment, beginning with the Berlioz setting of de Nerval's Le roi de Thule, mezzo Sally-Anne Russell outlining the seemingly simple vocal line with support from Brett Dean's well-defined viola. Each artist employed a kind of respectful determination in their collaboration, Katz taking the forefront at the right moment, Russell pouring out a powerful sequence of sentences...

Dean and Katz collaborated in a welcome reading of Schumann's Marchenbilder, four pieces illustrative of fairy tales but informed by an ardent romantic depth and realised with taut authority. This was particularly so in Dean's sustained lyrical arcs and technique-flashing brilliance, in the third D minor Rasch picture of Rumpelstiltskin. Just as telling was the trio's performance of the Two Songs Op. 91 of Brahms: poised in attack, balanced in ensemble and pronounced with confident solicitude, the Die ihr schwebetlullaby an experience you wished would go on and on."

The Age - 22 August 2014. Reviewed by Clive O’Connell

A Woman's Life & Love | Melbourne Recital Centre

"From the wrenching devotion of the opening to its postlude recapitulation at the cycle’s end, this sequence of marvellous vignettes enjoyed an insightful realisation, Quaife’s line eloquent and true with Katz’s keyboard part considered and supportive."

The Age - 10 May 2014. Reviewed by Clive O’Connell

A Rhine Journey | Art Gallery of NSW

"Katz and Russell make a devastating duo and I can't imagine any better way to take a headlong plunge into the Rhine, or walk along its banks. Thanks to a considered programme, this pair take us deep into the heart of German culture. It's as if they've built yet another castle, but one constructed with music, for us to regard with awe."   

Australian Stage - 10 October 2013. Reviewed by Lloyd Bradford

Pierrot Lunaire | Melbourne Festival

"...a fluid, comfortable reading of this demanding construct dominated by Quaife's mobile and authoritative realisation of the composer's half-spoken, half-sung vocal line. But what remains in the memory is a certainty of purpose to the exercise, the composer's voice realised with conviction yet without straining."

The Age - 26 October 2012. Reviewed by Clive O’Connell

The Seasons - The Argentinian Connection | Melbourne Recital Centre

"The night’s main interest came in bass-baritone Nicholas Dinopoulos, who surged through five numbers...This young singer impressed with his linguistic fluency in three Romance tongues and an unswerving conviction that carried his audience with him through the macho world that Piazzolla’s work inhabits."

The Age - 24 September 2012. Reviewed by Clive O’Connell.