PRESS
FLIGHTS OF IMAGINATION (album)
"I defy any art music lover who also likes great movie music not to enjoy this album. Given the accessible and entertaining color, the technical rigor and expressive range of moods and textures his music displays, it's puzzling that Burwasser's vita shows no film scoring credits. Some producer is missing a bet."
-- Randall Couch, The Absolute Sound, December, 2023
"Daniel Burwasser is an American composer who writes music that is accessible and emotionally communicative but by no means overly simplified. It is contrapuntally complex, its essentially Romantic tonal idiom is spiced up with carefully applied dissonances, and it is marked by a particularly vivid and imaginative variety of colors.
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare 2023
"This attractive, well-played album gathers together in one place five disparate works by Daniel Burwasser(b1960) previously issued separately in mixed-composer Navona issues. A graduate of Temple and Rutgers Universities, Burwasser studied with several distinguished teachers including Charles Wuorinen and David Del Tredici.
Burwasser’s music is straightforward in melodic and harmonic appeal, as can be heard in his brilliant orchestral toccata Catching Fireflies (1997). Resonant of Prokofiev, this virtuoso concert-opener (or encore)received a splendid performance by the SeattleSymphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz on Navona’s ‘Luminescence’ album in 2014. The brief wind quintet Whirlwind (2016) shows no falling-off of Burwasser’s powers of invention and entertainment inits three compact movements. The title is a misnomer, intended only to show his ‘interest in momentum and expressive concision’, wholly successfully. The tone poem A Well Traveled Road (1992), the earliest and largest work here (and the oldest recording), is curiously more elusive expressively for all the euphony of style. Not so the string-orchestral essay Flux, which so impressed Donald Rosenberg in this fine performance from Concordia under Marin Alsop.
I reviewed the recording of Puck’s Game (2019) on the Sirius Quartet’s ‘Playing on the Edge 2’ album, describing it as ‘the pick of the bunch … a vividly scored, rhythmic tour de force that catches the mercurial quality of the sprite from The Tempest to a tee’. I stand by that assessment and would suggest it as the pick here, too, though the sheer exuberance ofCatching Fireflies is winning. The five works were recorded at five different locations – thousands of miles apart – by five different teams between 1995 and 2019; Melanie Montgomery’s mastering for this portrait album has smoothed out the sonic wrinkles very adeptly while retaining degrees of individuality(spaciousness for the orchestras, somewhat closer for the chamber ensembles) for each recording. A shame the album is a touch underfilled, but do give this a try."
-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone, 2023
"Burwasser demonstrates a masterful sense of how to deploy his ensemble to expressive ends. His scoring explores a world of colors, in an unfailingly rich and transparent fashion. Burwasser also understands the importance of contrast. Musical ideas, no matter how attractive, never overstay their welcome, as they are juxtaposed with contrasting material. In short, Burwasser’s music offers a compelling synthesis of thematic material, instrumental color, and a keen sense of contrast and momentum. It’s music that provides great satisfaction."
-- Ken Meltzer, Fanfare, July/August 2023
PUCK'S GAME
"Puck’s Game demonstrates, not for the first time on this release, Burwasser’s wit. This is one of the things I find particularly attractive about his music—wit is rarely found in the music written over the past thirty or forty years. Puck’s Game was composed for string quartet in 2019, inspired by the mischievous sprite in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Burwasser says that the music “reflects Puck’s playful and restless nature,” which it does colorfully. The Sirius Quartet plays the music with energy and complete conviction."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare, 2023
"Puck's Game is a cinematically illustrative characterization of Shakespeare's mischievous sprite Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Rhythmic and exciting, the work is somewhat reminiscent of Shostakovich, but more light-hearted and humorous."
-- Navona Records, 2020
"The pick of the bunch, though, is Daniel Burwasser's Puck's Game (2019), a vividly scored rhythmic tour de force that catches the mercurial quality of the sprite from The Tempest to a tee."
--Guy Rickards, Gramophone, 2021
"Rhythmic and fun... lively and pleasant to listen to."
--Luciano Feliciani, Kathodik Webzine, 2021
SUITE FOR SAXOPHONE QUARTET
"Wonderful writing, I really enjoy your sense of melody and invention. Your music is very attractive and has excellent pacing."
-- Matthew Levy
Executive and Co-Artistic Director
PRISM Quartet | XAS Records
WHIRLWIND
"The warm lyricism of the second movement is a lovely contrast to the quick outer movements, and the finale is a delightful romp in the style of a Haydnesque Rondo. The Arcadian Winds play with precision, affection, and wit."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare, 2023
"The short piece – three movements in less than nine minutes – has a particularly attractive finale, which achieves some classical poise despite its modern sound."
-- Infodad- September 8, 2016
"The album opens with Burwasser’s three part woodwind quintet 'Whirlwind', which imbues a familiar instrument group and classical forms with imaginative, lyrical melodies, culminating in a distinctly Haydn-esque finale. On the CD as a whole: "It's a wonderfully rich and diverse collection of tracks that beautifully highlight why chamber music is still very much alive and the selection here perfectly showcases the genre's traditional and modern styles.
-- Darren Rea. reviewgraveyard.com 2016
FLUX
“ A post-Romantic utterance which to me evokes the early tonal works of Schoenberg. Flux quickly reveals its American accent by quite naturally lapsing into a phantasmagorical jazz riff for a moment before falling into a series of delicious harmonic suspensions that lead back to its yearning opening figure and yet further developments. Flux displays a fine sense of balance and proportion but, more important, engages the listener throughout its 10-minute duration.”
-- Fanfare
“ Flux harbors a harmonic language that is fairly romantic, maybe even indulgent. Burwasser’s strength seems to be that he has a keen ear for the actual color of specific harmonies, and can use those colors effectively – some of the chords simply glow! “ …on this 10-minute showing there is much talent here.”
-- Fanfare
“The most impressive work by far, however, is Daniel Burwasser's Flux. From the outset, Burwasser sets himself apart from the others with music that exhibits a strong sense of form and proportion, masterful orchestration, and a series of thoughtfully conceived musical events that actively engage with the listener's expectations.”
-- Andrew Schartmann, Music and Vision, October 7, 2013
“This collection closes with Flux by Daniel Burwasser, another quite enjoyable work that felt just a bit jazz influenced in places as well. Burwasser is a percussionist of note and teacher at Hunter College. This is an interesting piece that travels through many different moods and holds the interest throughout.”
-- Daniel Coombs , Audiophile Audition January 2, 2013
“The most mercurial work (on the CD) is Daniel Burwasser’s Flux, which moves from effusive romanticism and playfulness, to tenderness and mysticism.”
-- Gramophone, March, 2013
CATCHING FIREFLIES
“ It is not often that one hears this kind of technical mastery, especially in the realms of orchestration and compositional structure, from one so young”
-- Dr. Philip Springer, composer of Santa Baby and How Little We Know
Los Angeles, California
"Really, really big music... ..briskly jubilant. A pawky menagerie of Baroque, minimalism, film music argot, and Mozart at his cutsiest -- really."
--New Music Box, Issue 54 - Vol. 5, No. 6
"highly communicative... Though Catching Fireflies is generally an upbeat piece distinguished by some very resourceful percussion -writing, it is its quieter lyrical sections that stick in the mind leaving one with a pang of longing for a time and a world that, for most of us, exists only in memory."
--Fanfare
"In the work's episodes, it is not difficult to picture children alternately scampering and pausing to recuperate."
--American Record Guide
“…portrayed with greater grace and a welcome light touch, is the innocence of childhood fun as heard in Catching Fireflies by Daniel Burwasser, played by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz.
--Infodad.com, September 25, 2014
SONATA FOR PIANO
“The Best Language for Dialogue”
... Professor Anahit Nersisian presented Daniel Burwasser’s Piano Sonata. Serving as the foundation of this one-movement work was a leitmotif consisting of four notes which, at one point, I found similar to the doleful call of the sea in Wagner’s Tristan. It is a “fixed emotion”, which continually demanded a resolution. I could only take a slight breath at the intermittent clearings in the sonata’s sonorously superdense jungles.”
..Daniel the Musician. Haik
(Translated from the Armenian by Aris Sevag)
REFLECTIONS
“Little Fanfares for the Common Man and Woman”
...composer Daniel Burwasser forms quite an acceptable union with the words in his Reflections, perhaps Ms. (Ilsa) Gilbert’s most searching and insightful poem of the evening sung with taste and assurance by mezzo soprano Oreen Zeitlin...
--The Music Connoisseur, Vol.2, No.1
“I Hear America Singing” (On The Occasion of American Independence Day)
... (a) series of extraordinary songs. The music is sunshine brilliant, its rays are reflected in the crystalline notes of the piano (like Debussy’s songs).
-- Haik (translated)
TORRENTS
“ ...Mr. Burwasser seems to stake out his territory with facility and clear purpose... All (the songs) are emotionally charged and, thank heavens, refreshingly lyrical. We immediately enjoyed the evocative undulations and the asymmetrical form of the last song best, but the other two also captured ideas expressed in the poems beautifully, such as the unbridled tempo in the first and the descending (falling leaf) scales of number two”.
--Barry L. Cohen, The New Music Connoisseur, Vol.6, No.2
A WELL TRAVELED ROAD
"The longest piece on the program is A Well-Traveled Road, composed in 1992. Robert Shankovich’s informative notes point out that, unlike Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Burwasser has chosen the “well-travelled road,” promising the listener “a pleasant excursion through friendly musical territory.” This should not be taken to imply that the piece is unchallenging background music. Harmonies and rhythms are pungent, and Burwasser alternates the lyrical and dramatic in unpredictable ways. Some of the contrasts in mood remind me of Shostakovich or Mahler, two composers who could put the banal immediately adjacent to the ethereal or profound and make everything sound as if it belongs together."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare 2023
“Mr. Burwasser takes a simple three note motive through a series of contractions, expansions, inversions and rhythmic variations, and gets a lot of mileage out of it”. . .
--The Music Connoisseur
“(The piece’s) lively, rhythmic nature suggests the neo-classicism of earlier generations of American composers. . .The work’s colorful orchestration and largely tonal manner make it extremely accessible. .
--.Fanfare
“Sassy and boisterous, full of brassy fanfares...”
--American Record Guide
“...well crafted... colorful... virtuoso writing for winds and percussion”
--Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no.2
“It is an excellent piece! I was particularly struck by the assurance of the orchestration. Bravo..”
--David Del Tredici, composer
ONE NIGHT TOGETHER
" ...contemporary and sophisticated. ... (Burwasser uses) an angular accompaniment to create a dark mood, and something using something closer to sprechgesang than singing, especially in a passage that resembled Vere's monologue in Billy Budd."
--New Music Connoisseur
* Daniel Burwasser is an American composer who writes music that is accessible and emotionally communicative but by no means overly simplified. It is contrapuntally complex, its essentially Romantic tonal idiom is spiced up with carefully applied dissonances, and it is marked by a particularly vivid and imaginative variety of colors.
"I defy any art music lover who also likes great movie music not to enjoy this album. Given the accessible and entertaining color, the technical rigor and expressive range of moods and textures his music displays, it's puzzling that Burwasser's vita shows no film scoring credits. Some producer is missing a bet."
-- Randall Couch, The Absolute Sound, December, 2023
"Daniel Burwasser is an American composer who writes music that is accessible and emotionally communicative but by no means overly simplified. It is contrapuntally complex, its essentially Romantic tonal idiom is spiced up with carefully applied dissonances, and it is marked by a particularly vivid and imaginative variety of colors.
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare 2023
"This attractive, well-played album gathers together in one place five disparate works by Daniel Burwasser(b1960) previously issued separately in mixed-composer Navona issues. A graduate of Temple and Rutgers Universities, Burwasser studied with several distinguished teachers including Charles Wuorinen and David Del Tredici.
Burwasser’s music is straightforward in melodic and harmonic appeal, as can be heard in his brilliant orchestral toccata Catching Fireflies (1997). Resonant of Prokofiev, this virtuoso concert-opener (or encore)received a splendid performance by the SeattleSymphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz on Navona’s ‘Luminescence’ album in 2014. The brief wind quintet Whirlwind (2016) shows no falling-off of Burwasser’s powers of invention and entertainment inits three compact movements. The title is a misnomer, intended only to show his ‘interest in momentum and expressive concision’, wholly successfully. The tone poem A Well Traveled Road (1992), the earliest and largest work here (and the oldest recording), is curiously more elusive expressively for all the euphony of style. Not so the string-orchestral essay Flux, which so impressed Donald Rosenberg in this fine performance from Concordia under Marin Alsop.
I reviewed the recording of Puck’s Game (2019) on the Sirius Quartet’s ‘Playing on the Edge 2’ album, describing it as ‘the pick of the bunch … a vividly scored, rhythmic tour de force that catches the mercurial quality of the sprite from The Tempest to a tee’. I stand by that assessment and would suggest it as the pick here, too, though the sheer exuberance ofCatching Fireflies is winning. The five works were recorded at five different locations – thousands of miles apart – by five different teams between 1995 and 2019; Melanie Montgomery’s mastering for this portrait album has smoothed out the sonic wrinkles very adeptly while retaining degrees of individuality(spaciousness for the orchestras, somewhat closer for the chamber ensembles) for each recording. A shame the album is a touch underfilled, but do give this a try."
-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone, 2023
"Burwasser demonstrates a masterful sense of how to deploy his ensemble to expressive ends. His scoring explores a world of colors, in an unfailingly rich and transparent fashion. Burwasser also understands the importance of contrast. Musical ideas, no matter how attractive, never overstay their welcome, as they are juxtaposed with contrasting material. In short, Burwasser’s music offers a compelling synthesis of thematic material, instrumental color, and a keen sense of contrast and momentum. It’s music that provides great satisfaction."
-- Ken Meltzer, Fanfare, July/August 2023
PUCK'S GAME
"Puck’s Game demonstrates, not for the first time on this release, Burwasser’s wit. This is one of the things I find particularly attractive about his music—wit is rarely found in the music written over the past thirty or forty years. Puck’s Game was composed for string quartet in 2019, inspired by the mischievous sprite in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Burwasser says that the music “reflects Puck’s playful and restless nature,” which it does colorfully. The Sirius Quartet plays the music with energy and complete conviction."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare, 2023
"Puck's Game is a cinematically illustrative characterization of Shakespeare's mischievous sprite Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Rhythmic and exciting, the work is somewhat reminiscent of Shostakovich, but more light-hearted and humorous."
-- Navona Records, 2020
"The pick of the bunch, though, is Daniel Burwasser's Puck's Game (2019), a vividly scored rhythmic tour de force that catches the mercurial quality of the sprite from The Tempest to a tee."
--Guy Rickards, Gramophone, 2021
"Rhythmic and fun... lively and pleasant to listen to."
--Luciano Feliciani, Kathodik Webzine, 2021
SUITE FOR SAXOPHONE QUARTET
"Wonderful writing, I really enjoy your sense of melody and invention. Your music is very attractive and has excellent pacing."
-- Matthew Levy
Executive and Co-Artistic Director
PRISM Quartet | XAS Records
WHIRLWIND
"The warm lyricism of the second movement is a lovely contrast to the quick outer movements, and the finale is a delightful romp in the style of a Haydnesque Rondo. The Arcadian Winds play with precision, affection, and wit."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare, 2023
"The short piece – three movements in less than nine minutes – has a particularly attractive finale, which achieves some classical poise despite its modern sound."
-- Infodad- September 8, 2016
"The album opens with Burwasser’s three part woodwind quintet 'Whirlwind', which imbues a familiar instrument group and classical forms with imaginative, lyrical melodies, culminating in a distinctly Haydn-esque finale. On the CD as a whole: "It's a wonderfully rich and diverse collection of tracks that beautifully highlight why chamber music is still very much alive and the selection here perfectly showcases the genre's traditional and modern styles.
-- Darren Rea. reviewgraveyard.com 2016
FLUX
“ A post-Romantic utterance which to me evokes the early tonal works of Schoenberg. Flux quickly reveals its American accent by quite naturally lapsing into a phantasmagorical jazz riff for a moment before falling into a series of delicious harmonic suspensions that lead back to its yearning opening figure and yet further developments. Flux displays a fine sense of balance and proportion but, more important, engages the listener throughout its 10-minute duration.”
-- Fanfare
“ Flux harbors a harmonic language that is fairly romantic, maybe even indulgent. Burwasser’s strength seems to be that he has a keen ear for the actual color of specific harmonies, and can use those colors effectively – some of the chords simply glow! “ …on this 10-minute showing there is much talent here.”
-- Fanfare
“The most impressive work by far, however, is Daniel Burwasser's Flux. From the outset, Burwasser sets himself apart from the others with music that exhibits a strong sense of form and proportion, masterful orchestration, and a series of thoughtfully conceived musical events that actively engage with the listener's expectations.”
-- Andrew Schartmann, Music and Vision, October 7, 2013
“This collection closes with Flux by Daniel Burwasser, another quite enjoyable work that felt just a bit jazz influenced in places as well. Burwasser is a percussionist of note and teacher at Hunter College. This is an interesting piece that travels through many different moods and holds the interest throughout.”
-- Daniel Coombs , Audiophile Audition January 2, 2013
“The most mercurial work (on the CD) is Daniel Burwasser’s Flux, which moves from effusive romanticism and playfulness, to tenderness and mysticism.”
-- Gramophone, March, 2013
CATCHING FIREFLIES
“ It is not often that one hears this kind of technical mastery, especially in the realms of orchestration and compositional structure, from one so young”
-- Dr. Philip Springer, composer of Santa Baby and How Little We Know
Los Angeles, California
"Really, really big music... ..briskly jubilant. A pawky menagerie of Baroque, minimalism, film music argot, and Mozart at his cutsiest -- really."
--New Music Box, Issue 54 - Vol. 5, No. 6
"highly communicative... Though Catching Fireflies is generally an upbeat piece distinguished by some very resourceful percussion -writing, it is its quieter lyrical sections that stick in the mind leaving one with a pang of longing for a time and a world that, for most of us, exists only in memory."
--Fanfare
"In the work's episodes, it is not difficult to picture children alternately scampering and pausing to recuperate."
--American Record Guide
“…portrayed with greater grace and a welcome light touch, is the innocence of childhood fun as heard in Catching Fireflies by Daniel Burwasser, played by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz.
--Infodad.com, September 25, 2014
SONATA FOR PIANO
“The Best Language for Dialogue”
... Professor Anahit Nersisian presented Daniel Burwasser’s Piano Sonata. Serving as the foundation of this one-movement work was a leitmotif consisting of four notes which, at one point, I found similar to the doleful call of the sea in Wagner’s Tristan. It is a “fixed emotion”, which continually demanded a resolution. I could only take a slight breath at the intermittent clearings in the sonata’s sonorously superdense jungles.”
..Daniel the Musician. Haik
(Translated from the Armenian by Aris Sevag)
REFLECTIONS
“Little Fanfares for the Common Man and Woman”
...composer Daniel Burwasser forms quite an acceptable union with the words in his Reflections, perhaps Ms. (Ilsa) Gilbert’s most searching and insightful poem of the evening sung with taste and assurance by mezzo soprano Oreen Zeitlin...
--The Music Connoisseur, Vol.2, No.1
“I Hear America Singing” (On The Occasion of American Independence Day)
... (a) series of extraordinary songs. The music is sunshine brilliant, its rays are reflected in the crystalline notes of the piano (like Debussy’s songs).
-- Haik (translated)
TORRENTS
“ ...Mr. Burwasser seems to stake out his territory with facility and clear purpose... All (the songs) are emotionally charged and, thank heavens, refreshingly lyrical. We immediately enjoyed the evocative undulations and the asymmetrical form of the last song best, but the other two also captured ideas expressed in the poems beautifully, such as the unbridled tempo in the first and the descending (falling leaf) scales of number two”.
--Barry L. Cohen, The New Music Connoisseur, Vol.6, No.2
A WELL TRAVELED ROAD
"The longest piece on the program is A Well-Traveled Road, composed in 1992. Robert Shankovich’s informative notes point out that, unlike Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Burwasser has chosen the “well-travelled road,” promising the listener “a pleasant excursion through friendly musical territory.” This should not be taken to imply that the piece is unchallenging background music. Harmonies and rhythms are pungent, and Burwasser alternates the lyrical and dramatic in unpredictable ways. Some of the contrasts in mood remind me of Shostakovich or Mahler, two composers who could put the banal immediately adjacent to the ethereal or profound and make everything sound as if it belongs together."
-- Henry Fogel, Fanfare 2023
“Mr. Burwasser takes a simple three note motive through a series of contractions, expansions, inversions and rhythmic variations, and gets a lot of mileage out of it”. . .
--The Music Connoisseur
“(The piece’s) lively, rhythmic nature suggests the neo-classicism of earlier generations of American composers. . .The work’s colorful orchestration and largely tonal manner make it extremely accessible. .
--.Fanfare
“Sassy and boisterous, full of brassy fanfares...”
--American Record Guide
“...well crafted... colorful... virtuoso writing for winds and percussion”
--Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no.2
“It is an excellent piece! I was particularly struck by the assurance of the orchestration. Bravo..”
--David Del Tredici, composer
ONE NIGHT TOGETHER
" ...contemporary and sophisticated. ... (Burwasser uses) an angular accompaniment to create a dark mood, and something using something closer to sprechgesang than singing, especially in a passage that resembled Vere's monologue in Billy Budd."
--New Music Connoisseur
* Daniel Burwasser is an American composer who writes music that is accessible and emotionally communicative but by no means overly simplified. It is contrapuntally complex, its essentially Romantic tonal idiom is spiced up with carefully applied dissonances, and it is marked by a particularly vivid and imaginative variety of colors.
