Neues Volksblatt, 2/8/2016
"...oscillating between dazzling expressionism and tender melody."
Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, 2/8/2016
"Blunt musical idioms of jazzy ragtime changed into dazzling sounds of the spheres."
Photo by Patrick Pfeiffer
Tiroler Tageszeitung, 2/8/2016
"William Bolcom seizes the story, telling it at times aggressively, while at other moments presenting it finely chiseled and gentle, even slightly dance-like....His clear, terse way of writing draws with abundance from tradition without any sign of banality or awkwardness....Linz had the experience of a successful evening of opera and discovered a composer who is not hiding behind formulas but simply wants to tell a (vehement) story. And that should also be allowed for a change."
Der Standard, 2/8/2016
"William Bolcom, who is a prominent figure in the musical world of the United States, knows how to mix a thousand stylistic ingredients expertly. With complex, illustrative and chameleon-like changes in his music, he follows the libretto by Arnold Weinstein and Robert Altman with a light step that reminds the listener of an accomplished dancer following a leading partner."
Kronenzeitung, 2/8/2016
"Bolcom's music delves deep without being unoriginal within the history of Broadway, Stravinsky or Wagner, and amalgamates its own language of sound."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2/21/2016
"Master Eclectic"
"Bolcom's eclecticism is unusual to middle European ears because he totally negates the discrepancy of aesthetic height of fall. All that is lacking now is pop music which then would contain everything that "sounds" nowadays, from Broadway up to (trace elements of) Donaueschingen."
translations by Jutta Gerber-Malm
News courtesy Edward B. Marks Music Company