Review - “Voice of Silence” Lyre Duo Concerts in Spring Valley, NY

On two occasions, on March 4 and April 30, Christina Porkert and Sarah Stosiek offered their duo lyre concert, “Voice of Silence” in Spring Valley, NY. The former took place in the Fellowship Community on the day after they had performed music in a play, “Crossing the Veil and Coming Back to Life” (led by Ted Pugh at the Christian Community Church in Spring Valley.) As it was the first day that the Fellowship Community opened its doors to outsiders to attend cultural events, a great many people gathered to listen to Christina and Sarah. Centering on the piano pieces by the Catalan composer Federico Mompou from his collection called “Musica Callada (Voice of Silence),” they also played some pieces by Flor Peeters. As Christina mentioned in her introduction, these composers were living and active when the modern lyre was born in 1926 but did not know about it… These pieces of 20th century music were flanked by pieces by Händel and Pachelbel, respectively. Many local people commented to me afterwards that the concert was marvelous and that they did not know that lyre players could play music like that! Many people were simply astonished by the virtuosity and musicality of the two musicians. I sat in the front and carefully observed Christina’s and Sarah’s fingerings, which are so much faster and quite different from my own. (Sarah’s facility is supported by her whole-tone lyre, but it was also interesting to see Christina playing some of the fast phrases with finger glissandos.) 

We were extremely fortunate to have Christina and Sarah return to Spring Valley in April, this time, to perform at the Christian Community Church. This was an extended version of their March concert, also titled “Voice of Silence,” adding a few more pieces by Mompou and Peeters as well as a piece by Maria Schüppel (“3 Musiken and Duo for lyre”), one improvisation with a poem by Rosa Ausländer, and a piece by Christof-Andreas Lindenberg ("A Scene from Genesis"). I often observe that there is a certain relief among audience members when the music switches from a piece not originally written for the lyre (in this case those by Peeters) to an original lyre piece (Schüppel). People’s breathing slows down and becomes deeper. I particularly enjoyed the complex and interesting piece by Christof-Andreas Lindenberg and hope to be able to hear these two fine lyrists play it agai