"Rarely has the musica viva audience cheered a soloist concert with such undivided, enthusiastic applause as Liza Lim's astonishing piece" (The New Listener)

Premiered at Munich’s Musica Viva festival by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ed Gardner on October 25th, Liza Lim’s new cello concerto A Sutured World has went on to equally enthrall listeners at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, where the work was given a warm reception in no less than three concerts with Altstaedt and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under conductor Matthias Pintscher.

A Sutured World returns in 2025 with national premieres by co-commissioners Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Both presenters have named Liza as their next Composer in Residence.

About A Sutured World

The four part work explores a range of transcultural topics, that are reoccurring in Lim’s works: The use of two bows for the soloist – a baroque bow as well as a modern bow – evokes a reflection on time and transience, while extensive and hauntingly expressive seagull-glissandi in both the soloist’s and the orchestral parts, create an ecological connection between natural depiction and human condition. The overall lyric and expressive tone of movements one to three gives way in movement four - titled “Simon says: ‘Alle Vögel fliegen hoch’” - to a playful virtuosic exchange between orchestra and soloist. In the composer's own words, "this work asks ‘how does light arrive in the world?’ Like all the famous poets say (Rumi, Ursula le Guin, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Emily Dickenson and others): through a crack, a laceration, a broken wing, a homeless person; through falling, through pleasure, through a flutter in the throat…”

Composer's note

The word ‘suture’ refers to stitching up a wound or an incision. That in turn evokes things in the world (humans, creatures, landscapes etc) that are torn, lacerated, and wounded, and processes of sewing and binding edges together for healing. In surgery, making repair of the body with sutures results in scars. But rather than ugliness, think of the Japanese art of kintsugi in which broken pottery pieces are re-joined with gold lacquer — instead of the damage being hidden, the imperfect lines of the join are illuminated.

Also interesting is that the English/Latin root for ‘suture’ is the same as the Sanskrit ‘sutra’ (or Pali ‘sutta’), i.e., to sew. The Buddhist sutras were sewn texts: palm leaves bound by thread. Thread, string, yarn, sewing – the sutras and sutures weave story lines: scars that shed light, brokenness that is stitched into new life.

Interview with Nicolas Altstaedt

Which aspects of Liza’s new concerto appealed to you in particular?

The reference to the figure of Leiermann fascinated me; the way it can be dealt with in an authentic and inspired way in contemporary musical language. Liza managed not to let the use of two bows deteriorate into an effect, but to integrate it musically as something necessary. The visuals were touching because they were at one with the sound.

What are the particular artistic and technical challenges of A Sutured World?

I think it’s the internalisation of Liza’s language. You need to understand what’s meant behind those black dots on a white sheet of paper, and it requires a lot of creativity to convey that which is close to her heart.

Read complete interview

Press quotes on A Sutured World

"Liza Lim’s new cello concerto is of a different kind of energy, counteracting colourful bustle with warming spirituality. “A Sutured World” was composed for Nicolas Altstaedt, who acts as the charismatic master of ceremonies throughout this curiously touching piece, which combines simplicity and complexity in a holistic way. Full-bodied sonic beauty and vulnerable tenderness, breakneck virtuosity and noisily repetitive sequences build into a harmonious whole. At the centre of this is the cello, which the soloist tends to with two bows, oblivious to the melody."
"A Sutured World, which was practically tailored to the German-French soloist Nicolas Altstaedt, can be enjoyed by its audience simply as a wonderful cello concerto, as well as with all of its philosophical structures – encompassing terms like wound healing, rupture, sutra, and scar. The clearly-structured four-part piece, as well as Altstaedt’s highly-engaged performance of similarly enormous emotional range, is convincing throughout – from mystical immersion to hallucination, to the ecstatic joy of playing. "

Score of A Sutured World