What the Press Is Saying

…a direct musical offshoot of Goya’s Disasters of War.

Simultaneously bleak and bumptious, Caprichos Enfaticos is a fitting descendant of those harrowing, brilliant pictures.

From hopelessness and misery, Goya was able to derive great and frightful art. From Goya, Martin Bresnick has derived a pocket concerto that honors its source while resonating in our own more mechanized but no less brutalized age.

--George M. Wallace, afoolintheforest.com November 22, 2011

…much of the score weaves its two strains together in subtle and aptly disturbing ways, and there is beauty and tenderness nestled amid the explosions.

--Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle November 20, 2011

…though this may be somewhat programmatic music, it is music to hear, first and foremost…

It is music as sound painting, sort of “Pictures at an Exhibition” narrative style transposed to the post-modernist present. It is a work of power and a meditation on war and its horrors.

Martin Bresnick writes music that stands out, that speaks with a grammar and syntax much his own. At this juncture in our history the subject matter is as timely as ever.

--Grego Gapplegate Edwards, Classicalmodernmusic.blogspot.com November, 2011

Bresnick’s music always has a thrilling economy of means – not minimalist, but concise, efficient – and he is a true master of guiding a listener’s attention through long spans of time…

…the piece is fun, darkly funny, witty, and unexpectedly moving (as you’d expect from this composer).

--Jeremy Howard Beck, Icareifyoulisten.com November 10, 2011

…creative and perceptive…

--Ronni Reich, New Jersey Star-Ledger November 4, 2011

…dramatic, bold and a bit disturbing, as is the source material. Each of the movements to this eight movement concerto, Caprichos Enfaticos (Emphatic Capriccios) is titled after one of the sketches in the Goya collection.

…this work is intended to be performed in a multi-media way, with projections…however, Bresnick’s score stands very well on its own as a very powerful listening experience. The music is wonderfully written to run a range of emotion from the darkly mysterious…to the violent and chaotic…

…picturesque and compelling…

--Daniel R. Coombs, Amazon.com user review (5.0 out of 5 stars) November 7, 2011

…the story is highly theatrical and Pasatieri’s music is lyrical, unashamedly Romantic, always accessible.

Not surprisingly, this has proved to be a popular opera, performed literally thousands of times around the world.

--Kevin Bazzana, Times Colonist December 8, 2011

Matheson writes in full orchestral 3-D. Waves of tonal sounds moved across the stage, and sections had individual voices and even voices within the sections.

--Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun Times December 16, 2011

This grand, fantastical thing comes at you from all directions with an utterly disorienting array of sounds and styles. Every note in it is above middle C; the overall impression is of a heavenly, celebratory jangle of women’s and children’s voices mixed with metal percussion and piercing high winds.

Being in the cathedral Sunday was like living in Brant’s head as he dreamed up one wild sound after another.

--Tom Strini, Third Coast Digest November 20, 2011

…shows she can write a blockbuster.

Spectacular sounds abound, and Alessi’s cadenza is fantasic.

--Barry Kilpatrick, American Record Guide

…an impressionist palette of seductive moods and colors…

Wagner is an eloquent, poetic voice in contemporary music.

--Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide October 2011

…blues-drenched…packed with ear-catching effects.

…a composition that lofted Tin Pan Alley into deep space with tart harmonies, glassy tone clusters and keyboard-spanning runs.

--Chris Waddington, New Orleans Times-Picayune November 1, 2011

The new Quintet proved to be a crowd-pleaser that had the audience on its feet at the conclusion. But it also seems destined to find a home among the established chamber music repertoire…

Zwilich’s new Quintet is inventive, witty and well-constructed, and it gave ample opportunity for each musician to shine.

It was a fun piece, partly because the performers communicated how much fun they were having.

--Janelle Gelfand, Cincinnati.com January 16, 2012

New companion pieces to long-established masterworks are arriving with increasing frequency, often with an inhibiting effect on the most strong-minded composer. But not Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

[The composer] was commissioned…to write for the instrumentation of Shubert’s Trout Quintet, and if anything, found an even more defined voice.

Zwilich’s fine Quintet came off as if the melodious Schubert piece didn’t exist.

The first (and most Zwilich-like) movement hailed from mid-20th century neo-classicism…her usual sense of lean economy fueled by a strong formal sensibility and little external prettiness.

--David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer October 26, 2011

Only Zwilich, who wrote her piece for the same instrumentation as Schubert’s Quintet, could somehow find the Gershwin in Schubert. In the second movement of her Quintet, which received its world premiere Sunday at SummerFest, Zwilich took a snippet of Schubert’s melody, augmented it until it was nearly unrecognizable, and transformed it into a all-out jazz-inflected romp.

No wonder the Quintet was a crowd pleaser, earning a standing ovation from the audience in Sherwood Auditorium…

…this appealing work has a real chance of having a life beyond its commissioned performances.

--James Chute, San Diego Union Tribute August 7, 2011

About Persichetti's Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 92

The neoclassical Ninth Sonata, written in 1952, is an agreeable, gentle piece…

About Persichetti's Winter Solstice

…reflects Persichetti’s mature style: abstract, disciplined, nostalgic, and affecting.

About Richter's Piano Sonata

…the Sonata, which was written in 1954 (when Richter was only 28), reveals the mind of a fully realized master composer.

I have no doubt that Richter’s Sonata is one of the most important works written for the piano after 1950.

--Radu A. Lelutiu, Fanfare January 2012