Reviews
“[…] In the first concert there were 5 pieces […] The musical development is not typically as audiences on normal classical/contemporary concerts may expect. The texture and overall atmosphere is important, and was so masterly achieved in the concert that one can call it unique. This kind of atmosphere one hardly ever experiences in a concert, except perhaps when hearing the music of George Crumb. Especially I have to mention Dincolo […] where the soundscape was so mythical and ancient-like and so unbelievably beautiful that I cannot remember anything like that. Also I must mention Clocks […] As the name suggests, it is speculations about the Time, that was based on many different rhythms and pulses, but underneath there was lying a kind of non-pulse that gradually took over so that an image was created of the Time, who rules the deterioration of everything, like the Greek god Kronos who ate his children. So the ticking clocks ended on legendary notes. […]
The second concert […] was equally good. Two works by Rotaru were premiered, one of them named “Prana-apana” […] The music was alternatively extravert, lively, with a clear form or introvert and charmingly faint. The other premiered piece was called Japanese Garden […] The atmosphere was meditative – but otherwise I lack words to describe the music. It was so wonderfully special and Kolbeinn [Bjarnason]’s performance so full of contrasts and emotion that there is no way to describe it in words. Arni Kristjansson said in his book “What are you-Music?” that such music is not “based on things that have happened. It is the “poetry of the air”, life without material, eternal. It is based on abstractism, not reality.” The value of such music though, is that it opens the possibility to make the unreal real; it makes you able to make the existence of the spirit touchable. In this concert this happened.
It is clear that those who stayed home missed a lot. Without a doubt, this is one of the most interesting concerts that has been in Skalholt for a long, long time.”
Despina Petecel-Theodoru
Actualitatea Muzicală Magazine No. 6/2016, Romania (regarding the premiere of Fragile II during the International Week of New Music)
[ENG]
“I perceived the whole work more like an elegy of a powerful creator, whose moments of fragility have, volens nolens, strength. […] this music gives the impression of an unhindered flow, while its construction is solid and strict – a music that is at the same time refined and intensive, played with
talent […]”
[RO]
“Am perceput întreaga lucrare mai degrabă ca pe o elegie a unui creator puternic, ale cărui momente de fragilitate au, volens nolens, forţă. […] această muzică dă impresia de curgere nestingherită, în timp ce construcţia ei este solidă şi riguroasă – o muzică rafinată şi puternică totodată, cântată cu har […]”
Vlad Văidean
Actualitatea Muzicală Magazine, Romania (regarding various performances during the International Week of New Music)
[ENG]
“[…] listening to this atemporal music, seemingly emerged directly from the veiled soul tissues of a legendary creature, I felt as if such music would have been written by the fairy godmothers, the saintly benefactors and all feminine protectors from fairy-tales: soothing and magic par excellence, whose beneficent potion we cannot stop being captivated by […]”
[RO]
“[…] ascultând această muzică atemporală, desprinsă parcă direct dintre voalatele ţesuturi sufleteşti ale unei făpturi legendare, am avut impresia că ursitoarele, sfintele binefăcătoare şi toate patroanele feminine din basme o astfel de muzică ar fi compus: mângâietoare şi magică prin excelenţă, de a cărei poţiune binefăcătoare nu contenim să ne lăsăm subjugaţi […]”
A.M. No. 6/2014
[ENG]
“[…] Doina Rotaru managed, in less than a quarter of an hour, to musicalize the thought of universal fragility with that inexorable force of persuasion that I have earlier described as being the very aesthetic value, the engine that animates the authentic work of art. […] I felt in Fragile II the same summoning that any valuable work of art makes towards remembering the fact that the human spirit aspires to become more than it found itself to be. […] I felt, in fact, in this piece as well, what Doina Rotaru seems to pursue in all her music: trying to ritualize in a sonic way a process of cleansing, of purification, of reconciling the two infinities – the one of the microscopic introversions and the one of the invading surroundings.”
[RO]
“[…] Doina Rotaru a reuşit, în nici un sfert de oră, să muzicalizeze gândul la fragilitatea universală cu acea implacabilă forţă de persuasiune pe care am descris-o mai devreme ca fiind însăşi valoarea estetică, adică motorul care animă opera de artă autentică. […] Am simţit, în Fragile II, aceeaşi somare pe care orice operă de artă valoroasă o face înspre reamintirea faptului că spiritul uman aspiră să devină mai mult decât ceea ce s-a pomenit că este. […] Am simţit, de fapt, şi în această piesă ceea ce Doina Rotaru pare să caute să obţină prin întreaga ei muzică: încercarea de a ritualiza sonor un proces de curăţire, de purificare, de împăcare între cele două infinituri – cel al infinitezimalelor introversiuni cu acela al năpăditoarelor împrejurimi.”
A.M. No. 6/2016
Irinel Anghel
Actualitatea Muzicală Magazine No. 6/2017, Romania (regarding a performance during the International Week of New Music)
[ENG]
“[…] Doina Rotaru’s work – Il Pianto del Ghiaccio, which brought to the concert the most musically valuable moment, […] quickly managed to transport the audience in a magical world – the unmistakable oneiric world of the composer’s music, in which fine sonic textures, seemingly floating in an weightlessness uncomplying to terrestrial laws, offered us all the contentment of choosing this concert. Art moves or draws attention only through something extraordinary, this is why sometimes only one piece (such as Il Pianto del Ghiaccio was tonight) or only one moment is enough to receive a lot, enough to fill, redimension and revalue a whole experience one participated in.”
[RO]
“[…] lucrarea Doinei Rotaru – Il Pianto del Ghiaccio, care a adus în concert momentul cel mai valoros din punct de vedere muzical, […] a reuşit rapid să transporte spectatorul într-o lume magică – lumea onirică inconfundabilă a muzicii compozitoarei, în care ţesăturile sonore fine, parcă plutind într-o imponderabilitate nesupusă legilor pământeşti, ne-au oferit tuturor mulţumirea de a fi ales acel concert. Arta emoţionează sau atrage atenţia doar prin ceva extraordinar, de aceea, uneori e suficientă o singură piesă (cum a fost Il Pianto del Ghiaccio), sau un singur moment, pentru a primi mult, pentru a umple, a redimensiona şi reevalua o întreagă experienţă la care ai participat.”