My Classical Notes: OVERTURES to Bach
August 23, 2016 Performing artists are continuing to explore new ways to present their music. We have seen works by a contemporary composer joined with compositions from the 1700’s. We […]
Tag Archives: Luna Pearl Woolf
Classical-Modern Music: OVERTURES to Bach album review
August 26, 2016 If you do not know, Matt Haimovitz is that enormously talented, accomplished and daring more-or-less young cellist who has embarked on a series of brilliant, genre bending […]
FEUILLETON der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung : Bach glüht
SONNTAG, 14. AUGUST 2016 im Bach glüht Alte Musik muss nicht in die Gegenwart übersetzt werden. Wenn Matt Haimovitz sie zum Klingen bringt, ist sie unser Jetzt Der Violoncellist Matt […]
The Buffalo News: Overtures to Bach Album Review
August 5, 2016 CLASSICAL Various Composers, Overtures to Bach performed by cellist Matt Haimovitz (Pentatone/Oxingale) Almost all cellists have personal relationships to Bach’s magnificent Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Matt […]
OVERTURES to Bach
Available now! Matt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each of […]
Music for Several Instruments: Bach the Terminal Point
August 1, 2016 Heitor Villa-Lobos called Bach “…a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound.” He mined a particularly rich Bachian vein throughout his career, as have so many […]
Broadway World: Matt Haimovitz’s OVERTURES TO BACH Set for Release This Month with PENTATONE Oxingale
August 1, 2016 Matt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each […]
La Fabrique Culturelle TV: Cordes et discorde
06 May 2016 Watch a four minute video of Luna Pearl Woolf’s 12 May 2016 Triptyque program at the Salle Bourgie, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from La Fabrique Culturelle TV. The program features Mélange à […]
Daily Hampshire Gazette: A Bach rebirth: Matt Haimovitz returns to Valley, cello in hand, to reinterpret baroque masterpieces
March 8, 2016 You don’t usually expect to find a classical cellist at a rock club. But Matt Haimovitz isn’t your usual classical cellist.
CBC News : Montreal composer Luna Pearl Woolf writes first opera, Better Gods
January 7, 2016 Opera explores pivotal moment in American history in late 1890s Montreal composer Luna Pearl Woolf’s first opera, Better Gods, opens Thursday night for two performances in front of […]
Maine Classical Beat – HAIMOVITZ AND VOICE: “IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE…”
Cellist Matt Haimovitz and the vocal trio, “Voice,” have a devoted following. There was a surprisingly large audience at Hannaford Hall on Friday night, in spite of 10 inches of snow and icy roads. Most people stayed after the concert to meet the artists.
Haimovitz, one of today’s grand masters of the cello, is also known for his eccentric choices of repertoire and for performing in unusual venues. I saw him at the Odd Fellows Hall in Buckfield and at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit, where he played his own amazing version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.”
Now he is collaborating with “Voice,” founded in 2006 by Emily Burn, Victoria Couper and Clemmie Franks. The problem, as Hamovitz explained, was that there was no repertoire for cello and vocal trio (…)
Washington Jewish Week – ‘Better Gods’ gives operatic life to a little-known chapter in history
The music by Wolff demonstrated a search for authentic Hawaiian chant and island instruments including the nose flute, warrior sticks and stone castanets. The effective use of these instruments represented a reach to pre-Western influence, even as we had a Western orchestra juxtaposed in this clash of cultures.
Scene4 Magazine [The Dresser] – Better Gods: Who Was Queen Lili’uokalani?
Woolf might have done the music this way to allow for two Hawaiian compositions–the traditional “Kumulipo” (“Creation Chant”) and “Aloha ‘Oe”–to be featured. Queen Lili’uokalani was the English translator of “Kumulipo” and the composer of “Aloha ‘Oe.” The Dresser was impressed with how seamlessly and beautifully Woolf blended “Aloha ‘Oe” into the music ofBetter Gods, making this old chestnut new to the ear.
Parterre Box – Throne Away
Offering something slightly more substantial than the 20-minute pieces shown last month, WNO premiered Better Gods, an hour-long work by composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Caitlin Vincent on Friday evening. The subject is the fate of Queen Lili’uokalani, last monarch of Hawaii. In 1898, Lili’uokalani attempts to repudiate the U.S.-friendly constitution inherited from her predecessor and shore up Hawaiian sovereignty.
DC Theatre Scene – Better Gods, new opera reveals Hawaii’s last queen, from WNO
Washington National Opera’s Better Gods brings a mostly unknown chapter in Hawaiian history onto the stage at the Kennedy Center, telling the story of Queen Lili’uokalani, the island nation’s last monarch, with dignity and high artistic values. I imagine the Hawaiian “better gods” are happy.
BWW Opera World – BWW Review: BETTER GODS Soars at the Kennedy Center
Ms. Woolf’s gorgeous score is underlined by the use of traditional Hawaiian chants and her score utilized authentic instruments like the nose flute, Kala’au (percussive sticks), and Ili’ili (castanets), that are native to the island. Ms. Woolf’s score also uses Queen Lili`uokalani’s famous composition, “Aloha ‘Oe”, sung in gorgeous counterpoint by soprano Ariana Wehr.
Oxingale Records 