Queensland Symphony Orchestra: Lior & Westlake
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https://www.qpac.com.au/whats-on/2025/qso-lior-and-westlake
Date Reviewed: 09/08/2025
Queensland Symphony Orchestra has put on a programme of inspired juxtapositions in this exhilarating show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s concert hall. An animated Benjamin Northey conducts an orchestra on top form through a truly stirring musical collection.
The concert opens with Australian composer Mary Finsterer’s take on Stabat Mater, a 13th-century hymn to the Virgin Mary, portraying her suffering during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The title comes from its first line, Stabat Mater dolorosa - the sorrowful mother was standing.
The opening movement of this immensely powerful work features a recurring musical motif that ebbs and swells throughout the piece, expertly switching between intimacy and grandeur as it evolves. This sonic see-sawing is enhanced by striking visuals - the magnificent Klais Grand Organ towering over the stage is bathed in regal purple light. Yet, seated far above the orchestra and with her back to the audience, organist Emma Hadfield cuts an isolated, fragile figure, echoing Mary’s loneliness in grief. Then her plaintive finger work escalates until it sweeps the orchestra into a series of thunderous crescendos. This aural assault forcefully communicates the suffering of an entire race, repeating variations of its mistakes and misery through the ages.
Coming after such an auditory and thematic battering, Nigel Westlake’s more intricate Antarctica: Suite for Guitar and Orchestra can’t help but seem a little muted. Slava Grigoryan’s virtuoso playing is impeccable, his guitar expertly woven by Westlake into the orchestral fabric of four individual pieces. But a guitar, no matter how faultlessly played, faces an uphill struggle when following a 6,780 pipe organ the size of Alaska. Originally composed for the 1991 IMAX film Antarctica, the suite does a fine job of taking the audience on a cinematic journey across an icy continent, especially the delicate, complex melodies of the Penguin Ballet. Yet, I found myself wishing I could see the accompanying images, a missing juxtaposition I felt would properly complete the experience. That’s a small quibble, however, as the suite moves effortlessly from moments of tranquil contemplation to passages of intense drama.
After the intermission, singer-songwriter Lior joins the QSO to perform Compassion - his masterful collaboration with Nigel Westlake. Compassion is a deeply moving cycle of seven songs, adapted from ancient Hebrew and Arabic, on the universal theme of empathy. Lior’s versatile and unfussy delivery threads in and out of the instruments, sometimes little more than a whisper, occasionally soaring. At times, his contained delivery seems locked in battle (or a passionate embrace) with a QSO turned up to eleven, and the effect is breathtaking.
Westlake’s orchestration and Lior’s mastery of the medium is exquisite - a musical smorgasbord with a Middle Eastern flavour. To use an old cliché, they have woven a rich tapestry, the score moving from moments of deep rhythmic energy to serene, almost ethereal passages - hymns to love and hope. In the saddest juxtaposition of all, it is impossible not to link Compassion, a work bridging cultural and religious divides through its music, to the present devastation in Palestine. Combined with Stabat Mater, the performance delivers an emotional, cultural and religious double whammy that reduced many in the audience to tears. Lior and the QSO end with a well-deserved encore, singing one of his English compositions to rapturous applause and a standing ovation. A triumph.
Verdict. A musical and emotional tour de force.