|
VOICES OF EXILE
It was a seamless, cunningly wrought sequence of poems and songs for soloists, chorus and orchestra, the texts inspired - if that is the word - by recent conflicts in Angola, Turkey, Macedonia, and a dozen other places. Blended into the live sounds were recorded folk songs and poems in the original languages, including one from a 15-year-old girl in a Calcutta slum, recorded by Blackford himself.
In their direct rawness, these were the most moving things in the piece; next to them, the contributions from the three soloists were bound to seem too 'arty' and sophisticated (an unfair comment, this, as all three soloists were excellent and far from precious - which only goes to show how vulnerable the listening experience is to its context).
As for Blackford's music, its utter sincerity was shown in its impeccable craftmanship and good taste. And it had genuinely touching moments, particularly in the dignified choral accompaniment Blackford added to the pre-recorded Macedonian folksong.
Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph, 22/04/2005
Premiered three years ago, but newly reworked with full orchestral accompaniment, it's a sincere, well-calculated work: a kind of extended protest song against the manifold persecutions that turn innocent victims into refugees, and refugees into innocent victims. Blackford draws his texts largely from poems, songs and testaments of exiled writers from many different countries and eras - often heard via tapes of the exiles themselves. He then weaves a lush cocoon of very English choral polyphony round these haunting foreign voices... At its best, as when a recording of beautifully inflected Macedonian folksong is counterpointed with its own translation and then against a live choral backing, the technique is evocative and touching.
His orchestrations are resourceful, his tonal harmonies strong, his use of classic forms such as fugue and passacaglia apt, and his word-setting intelligent ... this is an eminently singable, thought-provoking choral work that deserves wide circulation.
Richard Morrison, The Times, 22/04/2005
The unforgettable world premiere of Richard Blackford's Voices of Exile, commissioned by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, was a staggering success.
Bournemouth Echo
|
|
MIRROR OF PERFECTION
The music comes from the heart with integrity, and a technical assurance that firms up what might otherwise be benign lyricism into something of statiure and beauty. Above all, it was obviously good to sing and play. There is a cryiong need for this kind of music and not enough composers of consequence around who seem willing or able to meet it.
Michael White - The Independent on Sunday (March 1996)
Searingly beautiful.
The Telegraph
I went away quite stunned and overwhelmed by the beauty of it. It should become a standard piece for choral societies up and down the country.
Dr David Cohen - The J.S. Cohen Foundation
Clothing his amatory hymn in a radiance of strings, harp and three horns, Blackford went on to set hitherto unknown poems, showing the saint as love-obsessed. In movement six, a deftly woven passacaglia, "amore" appeared no less than 48 times. After such excess Canticle of Peace formed a suitably restful ending to this carefully written and enjoyable cantata.
Nicholas Williams - The Independent (1997)
The highlight of the concert was the modern work by Richard Blackford Mirror of Perfection, using the poems of St Francis of Assisi. It was a superbly vivid portrayal of words painted by music, especially the transcendent music of the Canticle of the Furnace and the pizzicato music of Canticle of the Birds. The Canticle of Peace was soothing and mesmerising while the climax of the Canticle of Love II had the audience spellbound.
Chichester Chronicle
SINFONIE POLIZIANE
…an arrangement and embellishment of five of Giovanni Gabrieli's canzonas. The transcription from brass ensemble to complete modern symphony orchestra, though lavish in its orchestration, maintained the antiphonal flavour of the original, alternating themes of brass, wind and string sections with rich, almost Elgarian nobility.
The Guardian
But the transposition is not a simple one. This is Gabrieli under a powerful magnifying glass, every detail blown up to enormous size and hurled at the listener, often with poster colour orchestration
Daily Telegraph
|
|
METAMORPHOSES
Richard Blackford's opera Metamorphoses blockbusted its way through every physical limitation in a truly spectacular world premiere. Its impact was the sum of many parts, not least the obvious commitment of a student cast, but principally from the sheer strength of the composer's musical imagination. This achieved the near impossible in transforming a stylized, almost detached stage presentation into a compelling theatrical experience.
The Guardian
Metamorphoses came across last night as a remarkable tour de force.
The Evening Standard
What I loved about Metamorphoses was that Richard Blackford writes beautifully for the young voices.
BBC Radio 4 - Kaleidoscope
The work commissioned by the Royal College of Music from Richard Blackford to celebrate their centenary could scarcely have been more ambitious. Blackford is plainly a talented opera composer - his Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Metamorphoses prove this.
Opera Magazine
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
The score abounds with marvellous tunes of extraordinary variety and mood. Here is a composer with a real talent for melodic writing, at once spontaneous and captivating. It is music which will haunt your days. The handling of the Gift Song , with its sensuous spell three times shattered by the rugged cracking and baying of trumpets and chorus, is a supreme example of artistic sensibility on the part of the composer.
Malcolm Crowthers - Gramophone
Richard Blackford's music is cunningly written to bring out the best from child performers. The event was a delight from beginning to end."
Opera Magazine
Blackford, as a deeply literate and assured composer, senses precisely the response demanded by each poem. And he has the skill to set them with a graphic immediacy which never descends to bathos. In a work such as this, that skill is rare.
Hilary Finch, The Times, 21/11/2001
|