THE
NEW YORK TIMES
"In
the 20th Century there were giants in the land: Ives, Ellington,
Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein. But who is filling those shoes
now? Heading many lists is Aaron Jay Kernis...bursting onto
the scene in 1983 with a New York Philharmonic premiere, Kernis
has written distinctive, vivid music in virtually every genre."
FORBES
"With
each new work and new recording, Kernis solidifies his position
as the most important traditional-minded composer of his generation.
Others may be exploring musical frontiers more restlessly,
but no one else is writing music quite this vivid or powerfully
direct."
SAN
FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Kernis
is now among the most celebrated people in American Classical
Music. In 1998 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his "Second String
Quartet." And now, he has just captured one of classical music's
major prizes - the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
[for] `Colored Field'."
FANFARE
"Kernis
has developed a real following among local audiences. People
genuinely like his music and look forward to hearing his new
offerings. 'Colored Field,' a large, powerful and dramatic
work, is possibly Kernis' major work so far. It brings a terror
that the gentle, lyrical, all-too-human solo line can barely
withstand."
THE
STAR TRIBUNE [Minnesota]
"Kernis
has a gift for long singing melodic lines, and a fondness
for the big, bold statement ['Colored Field']. The two shorter
works are adaptations of 'musica celestis,' a transcription
of a quartet movement for string orchestra, reaches heights
of radiant exaltation in homage to Hildegard of Bingen; 'Air'
shows Kernis at his simplest and most expressive."
BBC
Music Magazine
"The
most ambitious of the new works was Aaron Jay Kernis' Symphony
No. 2. His style is eclectic, with Romantic leanings, and
much of his music has a magic and originality that has made
him a composer to watch."
THE
NEW YORK TIMES
"...Schwarz
gave the premiere of an imposing half-hour score by Aaron
Jay Kernis, 'Symphony in Waves.' Like most composers of his
generation, Kernis achieves his ends by avidly sponging up
the myriad stylistic choices now available to him, from minimalism
and salsa back to Wagner and Schoenberg. Few absorb, combine,
and use all these materials with more originality or brilliance
-- a major work."
TTHE
NEW YORK TIMES
"'Symphony
in Waves' turned out to be a rather spectacular piece of music....Kernis
has a great ear for unusual sonorities and orchestral effects
and, above all, great skill and imagination."
THE
STAR TRIBUNE [Minneapolis
"Most
arresting new orchestral piece of 1991 ['Symphony in Waves']"
THE
NEW YORK TIMES
"A
roar of approval from the audience that greeted Aaron Jay
Kernis' 'Symphony in Waves' Friday at the Ordway.... showed
the essentials of Kernis' skill in construction and communication,
and his ability to orchestrate so clearly that every instrument
makes itself heard."
ST.
PAUL PIONEER DISPATCH
"They
met this marvelous piece, 'e Quattro Stagioni della Cucina,'
of historic re-imagination on its own mad terms and had the
audience howling for a second course."
CHICAGO
TRIBUNE
"Aaron
Jay Kernis' 'Le Quattro Stagioni della Cucina Futurismo' (The
Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine) gets my vote as the darkest,
funniest new piece of the 1990s. Courage was at a premium
in Kernis' unbridled score in a score that bristles with melodic
fervor and hair pin shifts of mood."
SAN
FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Mr.
Kernis is, to my ears, the most consistently exhilarating
of the younger American postmodernists."
THE
NEW YORK OBSERVER
"Aaron
Jay Kernis is a remarkable composer...in his 'Goblin Market'...you
hear an irresistible variety of invention from the 13-piece
ensemble...
THE
GUARDIAN [UK]
Kernis:
Double Concerto for Violin and Guitar and other works, Argo
Records "Kernis leaps into a jazz-classical fusion unlike
anything I've ever heard. There are flashes of jazz violinist
Stephane Grappelli, as well as Leonard Bernstein in his symphonic
jazz mode, and a uniquely Kernis synthesis that makes this
one of the more exciting new pieces to come from an American
composer in a few years."
USA Today
('Garden of Light'), a 40-minute impulsive explosion of sound
and effusive lyricism. Kernis' melodic writing is almost decadently
lush with its bittersweet extended melodies, rich harmonies
and lavish orchestrations."
THE
LOS ANGELES TIMES
"'Garden
of Light' is full of the delicate orchestral effects and ripe
lyricism that characterize nearly all of Kernis' music, but
the emotions involved -- and the ideas that spawn those emotions
-- are especially large."
THE
STAR TRIBUNE [Minnesota]
"The
fact that ['Goblin Market'] often sounds like a symphony orchestra
in full cry is tribute enough to his skill in instrumentation:
the range of color extracted from the players is quite bewildering...neo-decadent...catches
to perfection the hothouse of Christina Rossetti's imagination
and the forbidden fruits purveyed therein....Kernis's music
is so vibrantly theatrical in shape and sound that he should
have opera managements queueing at his door with commissions."
THE
TIMES [London]
"Kernis'
music explodes around - or maybe inside - Duffy's words ['Valentines'
for Renee Fleming]. In this huge, colorful, detailed score,
it's as if the words are Roman candles that send the music
flying off in all directions. The energetic opening in the
orchestra, full of razzmatazz, gives way to a soft lament
at the start of the second poem. He writes "Mrs. Midas" as
if it were an opera scene. He times the laugh lines expertly
and enforces a subtle tone of sensual reverie at the end."
THE
STAR TRIBUNE [Minnesota]
"[The
Philadelphia Orchestra] could hardly have been aware of the
effects they created in Aaron Jay Kernis' "Color Wheel," which
it commissioned for this occasion. The work was really meant
to highlight the traditional orchestra, which it did in novel
ways. He manages to use color as an emotional tool in and
of itself. Kernis formed an emotional arch that was, if unpredictable,
still discernible as the stuff of a heroic human journey."
THE
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
