The program title is a play on the title of a work by American-Japanese composer and cellist Paul Wiancko (b.1983). Affinity Quartet premières Wiancko in Australia with LIFT, his 2016 string quartet. National Public Radio wrote, ‘If Haydn were alive to write a string quartet today, it may sound something like Paul Wiancko’s LIFT’— and the New York Times describes it as a work that ‘teems with understanding of and affection for the string-quartet tradition.’

Accompanying LIFT are works by two of the most prolific composers of the string quartet: Beethoven and Shostakovich. The message of both of these composers is that music has the power to “uplift” – to provide personal healing and even unite humanity. Throughout Shostakovich’s life, protecting his livelihood and his voice as an artist within a totalitarian regime was a constant duality and his 10th String Quartet composed in 1964 comes from a time where he had to publicly serve the Supreme Soviet and live under threat of censorship. Beethoven’s 10th quartet, nicknamed ‘Harp’, is one of his most lyrical, meditative and joyous works. It was composed in 1809, during a period of refuge outside of Vienna when the French occupied Austria.