quotes
a short selection of nice things other people have said over the years…
Adelaide Now 9 March 2010
“Not content with being the country’s most expert, most scholarly and best-known recorder player, Genevieve Lacey has added some theatrical touches to her performances. Her entry by the West door and procession along the aisle, playing a lively 14th century Trotto-Saltarello the while, showed her complete command of the instrument and the occasion. Applying her admirable technique to sopranino, descant, treble, tenor and bass products of both ancient and modern design, she added electronics and computer manipulation into the mix. Lacey’s fluttering fingers and unerring judgment sent the angels soaring high into the heavens on jewel-encrusted wings.” Elizabeth Silsbury
About en masse
The Weekend Australian 13-14 March 2010
“Genevieve Lacey’s en masse was a hypnotic blend of music, sound and film, experienced while lying on lounges in a darkened room. Bliss.” Deborah Jones
ArtsHub 1 March 2010
“en masse is part concert, part film, part installation and the creation of renowned recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey and filmmaker Marc Silver. I hardly want to write too much lest I say too much! It is an experiential piece, by which I mean – you really need to go, and sit, and watch, and listen, and go on your own trip. The combination of Lacey, whose repertoire spans ten centuries, and the computer generated sounds creates an atmosphere of altering transformations that are unique to each performance. Redefining it as ‘electrocoustic’ they are able to wrap the audience in sound and movement. This is a sensual experience and without being overt, en masse addresses themes like the impact of globalisation, individualism and consumerism. The subtle message of order in chaos is alluded to through the projected imagery of birds. The piece is as much about space as it is about the sound and the image, as well as, the collaborators and audience working together en masse. I don’t want to say anymore, because I really think it deserves what can only come from first hand experience. A refreshing piece that although is perfect at 30 minutes long, I wanted to indulge in the space for longer, as if returning to the mother’s womb – I did not want to leave to face the chaos that is life.” Erin Keys
About Namatjira
Sydney Morning Herald 1 October 2010
“Nigel Levings’s lighting makes a powerful contribution to mood as does the live score by Genevieve Lacey, whose playing of the contrabass recorder – almost a floor-standing organ pipe – embodies the notion of cultural exchange beautifully.” Jason Blake
www.stagenoise.com October 2010
“The other spellbinding element of the [Namatjira] production is the music and soundscape, played live on stage by Genevieve Lacey. Best known around the world as one of the finest recorder players in the business, this is Lacey’s first outing into theatre composition and it’s terrific: counterpointing, adding and underlining and always into but not over the action.” Diana Simmonds
The Sydney Morning Herald 20 May 2009
“Lacey is an inspiring performer who lights up the stage with her fevered cascades of notes and soulful lyricism. … It was in the largo that Lacey’s transparent tone came into its own floating sybaritically over the pizzicato accompaniment. Next stop Spring with an extended outbreak of birdsong miraculously flooding out from Lacey’s fingers.” Harriet Cunningham
The Australian 19 May 2009
“This was a bravura performance from a consummate artist. Rapid runs and figurations were executed with thrilling agility and astonishing clarity of articulation. In slower movements, her elegant phrasing and finely graded dynamics created moments of hushed intensity. Throughout, Lacey sustained splendid breath control and refined timbre, radiating burnished warmth on the lower-pitched instruments and gleaming purity from the higher-pitched ones. She tastefully ornamented her solo lines, and her fluttering trills realised the avian character of the first movement of Spring.” Murray Black
Australian Stage Online 5 April 2009
“The last work, ‘Three Landscapes’, finally allowed Lacey to display her virtuosic talent; her instruments (which ranged from a tiny sopranino recorder to a clunky-looking contrabass) seemed to be extensions of her own body which sang with passion, delicacy and sensitivity. The small and much-maligned recorder finally comes into its own when Lacey plays, and her technical brilliance is never reduced to virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake, but remains entirely natural and meaningful.” Rachel Orzech
The Age 16 January 2008
“the night’s most moving moment came in the simple, fluttering poetry of Lacey’s version of Jacob Van Eyck’s Engels Nachtegaeltje. In one of the more familiar works played, the performer’s ability to make her own dexterity appear effortless and the care she dealt out to every note in this solo’s rich structure ensured the festival began with a touch of magic.” Clive O’Connell
West Australian 9 November 2007
“Telemann’s Recorder Concerto in C showed Lacey’s warm tone on the gentle treble recorder. Her marvelous breath control and articulation made joyful work of Telemann’s cascading runs and infused the slow movement with aching sorrow. … The concert was delivered with a confident élan that made the outrageous versatility and virtuosity appear normal.” Rosalind Appelby
The Sydney Morning Herald 1 December 2006
“Genevieve Lacey swoops from stratospheric sopranino to low hovering bass recorders with ease, perfection and grace. In her company, the program soars to dizzying heights, carrying the audience aloft on wings of song to delight the ear and beguile the soul.” David Vance
The Sydney Morning Herald 28 November 28 2006
“Genevieve Lacey’s superlative playing of almost every instrument of the recorder family was a matter of sheer, unforced delight.” Roger Covell
Music Forum May-July 2005 Vol. 11-No. 3
“The final pair of pieces, songs by Hildegard von Bingen, receive exquisitely simple treatment … both are entrancing, with subtle nuances or ornament, rhythm, intonation and articulation illuminating the pure, floating melody. There has always been something otherworldly about Genevieve’s playing, and this repertoire brings it to the fore. There is no overt display of virtuosity here, just beautifully expressive playing which transcends technique.” Malcolm Tattersall
Sunday Telegraph 21 March 2004
“Genevieve Lacey would be a superstar if she had chosen to champion an instrument more fashionable than the recorder. As it is, she’s still able to walk the streets unmolested. But you have to suspect that she will be single-handedly responsible for a resurgence of interest in that much-maligned “school” instrument.” D. Simonds
Adelaide Advertiser 24 May 2003
“… Genevieve Lacey is a virtuoso of the recorder… she is living, breathing proof that specialists need only apply. The technique is frankly superhuman, the musicianship supreme.” E. Silsbury
The Australian 17 May 2002
“… Genevieve Lacey shows just how it is done – beautiful sound, clear pitch and a musical intelligence that is unswerving…” Hilary Shrubb
The Guardian 3 September 2001
“Best of all was Vivaldi’s C Major Recorder Concerto, played by Genevieve Lacey with a combination of sensuality, wit and mind boggling flamboyance.” T. Ashley
The Australian 23 June 2011
“Lacey’s performance was effervescent in the sprightly outer movements and so sensitively controlled and even toned in the slow movement as to give the impression of a single, unbroken musical phrase.” Eamonn Kelly
Canberra Times 6 July 2011
“Genevieve Lacey’s instrument entered in a dazzing rippling stream of notes … The tone of Lacey’s recorder in the Largo was rich and seductive.” Jennifer Gall
Sydney Morning Herald 29 June 2011
“A performance that swept away dourness in favour of light precision and breathlessly agile sequences and golden filigree. In Vivaldi’s Piccolo concerto, the piercing incisiveness of Lacey’s performance on the sopranino recorder had delicate substance and bell like clarity.” Peter McCallum
The Western Australian 11 July 2011
“Untrammelled aural delight.” Neville Cohn
On Namatjira
Canberra Times 16 September 2011
“Every so often a theatre performance will come along that has the rare power to touch the heart, lift the spirit, make us laugh, move us to tears and change the way we view our world. Namatjira is such a production. Like the red heart of the vast Australian landscape, Scott Rankin’s brilliantly staged account of the life of famed indigenous watercolourist, Albert Namatjira, is epic in its nature and mesmerizing in its haunting beauty. … Namatjira’s life is related through the time-honoured oral tradition of story telling, combined with music, dance, singing and art. … On the other side of the stage, virtuosic composer and musician Genevieve Lacey creates the haunting woodwind sounds of the desert landscape. Music, art and story telling fuse in a symphony of sentiment, cultural sensibility and awareness.” Peter Wilkins