Cupid and Psyche

Henry Purcell: Fantasy upon one note
Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade
H. Purcell, G.F. Handel, A. Vivaldi and others: Various arias for soprano and orchestra Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E minor (arr. for string orchestra)

Entitled ‘Amor et Psyche’, this evening centres on love as longing, seduction, vulnerability and inner emotion. At the centre is the soprano Maayan Licht, whose exquisite voice lends a unique sonic form to the various facets of this theme. The Baroque arias are not merely individual pieces, but rather stages in a concert programme that explores and gives voice to emotional states.

Henry Purcell’s *Fantasy upon one note* opens the evening with music of intense, concentrated tension. A delicate interweaving of voices unfolds over a sustained note, creating the effect of a pause before the first word. Hugo Wolf’s *Italienische Serenade* then brings movement, closeness and a slight crackle to the performance.

Maayan Licht then takes to the stage, her voice providing the programme’s centrepiece. Arias by Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi and other composers speak of desire, doubt, devotion and pain. In them, love appears not as a state, but as an all-encompassing experience that transforms people. It is precisely in this that the programme touches upon the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

The programme concludes with Giuseppe Verdi’s String Quartet in E minor, arranged for string orchestra. Even without words, Verdi’s theatrical musical language remains intact. What previously took shape in the human voice is continued here in pure instrumental sound.