PRESS

CRI CD-739

The dominant characteristic of Louis Karchin's music is energy. Even in the very infrequent moments of repose there is the obvious desire to be moving, building in the background, waiting for the moment to burst forth and sweep all before. Karchin also possesses a striking melodic style that intrigues the ear even as the music is threatening to rush the listener off his or her metaphorical feet with its vivid and seductive use of instrumental color. —John Story, Fanfare

New World CD—80583-2 “American Visions”

A 21st century musician, taking us into the millennium with a new vision of music. The Washington Square Contemporary Music Society is among the world's most outstanding new-music ensembles. —David Denton, Fanfare

Karchin's pieces combine the rhythmic drive associated with downtown music with the harmonic and structural rigor of uptown serialism. These pieces are serious as well as fun to listen to. —Steve Hicken, American Record Guide

Songs of Distance and Light

One of the signal new music events of this year... Over a 17 minute span, the Eastman-trained composer avoids most of the pitfalls of contemporary writing for the voice, as he envelops his setting of three poems within a chamber-orchestra fabric of coruscating beauty. —Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner

Brazen and beautiful... Mark Stryker, The Detroit Free Press

Karchin is nothing if not fearless... Fanfare

Sonata for Violoncello and Piano

A kind of fearless eloquence in its gestures... Karchin is unafraid of cliches, such as diddledy-diddledy triplet ascents, when they can still serve a purpose, and his harmony moves powerfully. Fred Sherry, for whom the sonata was composed, and Alan Feinberg gave a cogent performance. —Andrew Porter, The New Yorker

Especially impressive in its rhythmic panache, intensity, variety of attack and pacing. —-Detroit Free Press

Orpheus, a Masque for baritone, chamber ensemble, and dancers

On Monday evening's Earplay concert the final piece emerged as the main attraction. The featured work of note was Louis Karchin's Orpheus, a setting of poet Stanley Kunitz' “In the Dark House”... The music seemed in constant flux, creating strong, richly textured sonorities for strings and woodwinds, lustrous chords for piano, harp, and vibraphone, and artfully-deployed sounds from the percussion, which added fullness and interjected brilliant splashes of color; this Orpheus floated on an incandescent fabric of sound. Conductor Mary Chun led the way with energy and verve, helping to mold an outstanding performance of this original and compelling work. —-Jules Langert, San Francisco Classical Voice

The Gods of Winter

The suspenseful "Veterans' Cemetery" had an underlying tone of reproach, and a hymn-like chorale haunted the title song. Even in its quietest moments the work had a bare-nerve intensity. Mr. Opalach provided a gripping account. — Steve Smith, New York Times

Fiftieth Birthday Concert

On Tuesday night at Merkin Hall came a chance to hear what Karchin has been achieving lately...which turned out to be quite a lot. Although the composer, in his note, insisted on the difference between vocal and instrumental pieces, the same personality was there in both. Mr. Karchin likes to explore wide harmonic worlds, but with precision and determination. — Paul Griffiths, The New York Times

A success worthy of this accomplished composer...New Music Connoisseur

Chamber Symphony

Waves rippling and shimmering in a sea of sound…rich with intriguing timbres….a riotous explosion of color in the exuberant finale — Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times

Saraband/Variation

At once austere and sumptuous... — New York Times

Rustic Dances

A nice romp with the unique kinds of trills and tremolos this combination invites, not scanting the piece's firm this-follows-that-narrative strengths either. —Richard Buell, The Boston Globe

“Best of Boston 2000.” —Boston Globe

Full of interesting gestures that hang together and grow organically. —-Steven Rosenhaus, The New Music Connoisseur

My Children Grew

With poetry by Yehuda Amichai, initially from a New Yorker issue, we must give Lou Karchin the highest of compliments; he entirely disappeared. I mean this seriously. The text was so expertly set that one was totally absorbed in the dramatic presentation and poem, and the music was so integrated with this that it became only heard by the subconscious. —Joseph Pehrson, The New Music Connoisseur

Songs of John Keats

Karchin's settings of the poetry of Keats are his most recent displays of a striking conception of text setting... The poetry interacts with musical material in an unprecedented fusion. —from a Citation to the composer, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1985

A Way Separate

Beautiful indeed, with particularly fine integration of the flowing vocal line with the instruments... —Leo Kraft, The New Music Connoisseur

Galactic Folds

The miniature cadenzas for the winds in the first movement come as moments when the players are so full of life they must break forth from the ensemble. The Finale has a wonderful, clockwork fury that abates briefly for an ethereal interlude before the final rush to the finish. —Fanfare

Voyages for Alto Saxophone and Piano

Using piano registers both above and below the sax, and sometimes doubling pitches in the same register, Karchin carefully makes a music that fuses the two instruments in a new sound color, no mean feat. — New Music Connoisseur

Capriccio for Violin and Seven Instruments

Already reveals a deft sense of timing and economy of gesture. Clear textures that project a strong harmonic profile. —James Primosch, High Performance Review