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REVIEWS "The credo of U.S. composer David Alpher centres on communication with his audience. There's a frank engagement with emotion in his music..." Music Web International, September 2010 "Alpher's music is all his own, and it is remarkably good. One can view Alpher's work as an extension of Bernstein's melodic style; as such, it is remarkably rare. . . Perhaps the most impressive measure of the work was that it succeeded in holding its own, and sticking in the memory, up against a superb performance of that monument of stupefying perfection -- Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A." Newark Star-Ledger, January 21, 1991 ADDDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY COMPOSITION Atlantic Legend
(version for viola, cello and harpsichord) ATLANTIC LEGEND (version
for viola, cello and harpsichord) " ... the lovely Atlantic Legend . . . is a marvelous piece of American neo-Romanticism. For all its Baroque-oriented instrumentation, Alpher creates something new and decidedly Romantic somewhat in the vein of Barber." Fanfare, July/August 1999 ATLANTIC LEGEND (version
for flute, viola and harpsichord) "The music has an American pastoralist accent in the Introduction and Toccata and is also jazzily and excitingly syncopated with scorching writing for the two string instruments... The [Serenade and Variations] Appalachian-sentimental melody is very touching." Music Web International, September 2010 "The most pleasant discovery on the program ... The piece is both lyrical and robust ...The second movement is a set of variations on a theme that might have come from the pen of Ralph Vaughan Williams or Aaron Copland in his Appalachian Spring mood." Dallas Morning News, July 7, 1992 "... rises to great poignant heights... This is powerful music..." Music Web International, September 2010 "... I doubt any family pet ever had a more heartfelt musical tribute ..." Fanfare, July/August 1999 HINTING OF OTHER PLACES
(version for voice and piano) Washington Post, September 24, 1984 LAND OF THE FARTHER SUNS (Version
for Narrator, Four Flutes and Piano) Music and Vision, July 16, 2003 LAS MENINAS: VARIATIONS (version
for solo piano) Xavier Montsalvatge, La Vanguardia, Barcelona, May 28, 1988 ". . . moving, inspirational, and thought-provoking." Michael Bogdanow, Chairperson, Arts/Lexington [Massachusetts], October 10, 1991 "I thought it was an excellent piece of work. I was most impressed by the musical invention and technical expertise ... It makes for an effective demonstration along with the paintings, but it should certainly stand on its own too ... a first-rate composition..." Lewis Rowell, Professor of Music (Theory), Indiana University School of Music, September 19, 1985 "...one of the highlights of the whole meeting." Eero Tarasti, Professor of Musicology, University of Helsinki, September 17, 1985, on the International Philosopy of Music conference in Helsinki LAS MENINAS: VARIATIONS
(version for ensemble) The Strad (London), September 1986 ". . . a serious and original work. It succeeds in at least two ways: it forces the audience to think about how each section is a variation on what precedes it, and about the relationship between [visual] art and music." Gloucester Daily Times [Massachusetts], June 24, 1986 "... the Alpher piece has charm ... it contributed to this enlightening, exciting multimodal evening." Boston Globe, October 27, 1986 MEMORIES OF DER ROSENKAVALIER Boston Globe, April 8, 1997 PATHWAYS American Record Guide, November/December 2000 "The two instruments muse in contented, yet guarded, communion. The music is like the rest of Alpher: melodic and determinedly tonal." Music Web International, September 2010 "There was wit and charm to this music, but a jazzy bite as well, with simple ideas spun out in elaborations so energetic they sometimes threatened to send piano wire and harp strings flying. [Cynthia] Price-Glynn was spellbinding in the dreamy cadenza." North Shore Magazine [Massachusetts], June 14, 1990 RITORNELLO The Daily Gazette [Albany, N.Y.], May 27, 2005 SONG WITHOUT WORDS The Boston Musical Intelligencer, June 11, 2011 SONGS OF TRANSCENDENCE Fanfare, July/August 1999 SONGS ON THE PASSAGE OF TIME Boston Herald, June 9, 2001 STRING QUARTET Gloucester Daily Times [Massachusetts], June 30, 1987 THEME WITH VARIATIONS Le Dauphiné, Grenoble, December 14, 1981 THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER Koelner Stadtanzeiger, May 24, 2000 "Of the three [Lewis]Carroll adaptations, Alpher's played the best ..." The Daily Gazette [Schenectady, N.Y.], October 26, 1992 TRIBUTE TO KEROUAC (version for ensemble) "... jazz-sleazy and hip-slack... uber-cool..." Music Web International, September 2010 "... jazzy ... very effective . . ." Fanfare, July/August 1999 ON THE COMPOSITIONS IN GENERAL Fanfare, July/August 1999 " ... refreshingly direct and uncompromising ... a sensitive word-setter ... a gifted composer." Gardner Read, composer "Alpher's chamber music is unusual and provocative." Boston Herald, June 9, 2001 OTHER COMMENTS The Sunday Star-Ledger [Newark, N.J.], July 28, 1991 "David Alpher has consistently used the Rockport Chamber Music Festival as a forum for exploring the relationship of music to other art forms, whether painting, poetry or prose." North Shore Magazine [Massachusetts], June 28, 1990 DAVID ALPHER AS PIANIST New York Times, September 22, 1983 "The composer is a fine pianist ..." Fanfare, July/August 1999 "... Alpher ... performed brilliantly and idiomatically at the keyboard ..." Newark Star-Ledger, January 21, 1991 "Alpher has always been an excellent pianist..." Boston Herald, June 9, 2001 "Alpher ... throughout the recital proved a most sympathetic collaborator." Boston Globe, May 2, 1995 |