Sarah Leonard

“Riccardo Chailly's 1996 account [of Amériques] is unlike any of its competitors in that it reconstructed for the first time Varèse's original version of the score from 1918-21, which uses a vast orchestra featuring 27 woodwind and 29 brass instruments - even a cyclone whistle. The recording certainly packs a punch, but the Concertgebouw players also revel in the many subtleties that colour the composer's unique orchestration. It comes as part of a two-disc release that features all of Varèse's surviving music - small in quantity but big on impact.” Matthew Rye, The Telegraph, 24th August 2008

“The solo piano piece Buckley's Hot Licks begins with keyboard pyrotechnics, veers into melodrama in its central section with the pianist as reciter, before ending with a homage to Art Tatum-style stride piano, while Sal's Sax is a hard-edged essay in Dutch minimalism driven along on a tide of brass and explosive keyboard and percussion chords. The beautiful Music for Cello and Strings from 2005 seems to me the most impressive work here, referencing a range of 20th-century models, from Schoenberg to Takemitsu, yet remaining confidently itself.” The Guardian, 20th June 2008 ****

“This is an essential purchase: Cutler may not make contemporary music loveable again, but he does make it unignorable and that is what really matters.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

“In the Torah and the [books of the] Prophets, God reaches out to man. The initiative is His. The message is His. He communicates, we receive.... In the Psalms, human beings reach out to God. The initiative is human. The language is human. We make an effort to communicate. He receives.... The human soul extends itself beyond its confining, sheltering, impermanent house of clay. It gropes for an experience of the divine Presence.” Nahum Sarna

“In the year of his 80th birthday, these are glorious accounts of great 20th-century works.” (The Guardian on Volume IV of the Teldec Ligeti Project)