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Albany Troy 710
"...music of considerable individualism and genuine beauty... it is useless to relegate this music to the background; it must be accorded some degree of focused attention. Such attention will be rewarded with material of beautiful texture and structure, and almost paradoxically, immense scope. You slip into this shimmering soundscape and encounter an aural alternative universe... The performances here are consistently superb."
Peter Burwasser, Fanfare
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Feb. 13, 2001
The Afternoon Rocker
Promising pieces, superior performers
"... (the performers) all launched into the pieces, sounded their depths and performed them superbly. The composers couldn't have found better advocates for their premier performances.
And the composer Morris Rosenzweig didn't even have to look. The musicians said: 'We want to perform this piece.' Meaning 'Trace' for two pianos and percussion. It doesn't take long to understand why the musicians are enthusiastic about this piece. 'Trace' is a wonderfully told story, full of poetry and promise. The music shines and sparks. Sometimes familiar, sometimes foreign. That was the work of the excellent quartet made up of the pianists Susan Winkus and Markus Stange and percussionists Lazlo Hudacsek and Daniel Buess."
CRI CD 787
Fanfare, July/August 1998
Rosenzweig... [is] a first-rate composer. While he employs a modern idiom, his sense of the beauty of instrumental tone and his clear sense of form deserve a wide audience.
"Roman Passacaglias... immediately engages the listener with its beautiful, transparent surfaces, but also rewards further listening by revealing lovely architecture beneath the surface. The same approach to instrumental writing can be heard in Angels, Emeralds and the Towers. 'Spring Wine Song' [from On the Wings of Wind] is particularly beautiful, and the harried repetition of a phrase (translated as "While they exault") in 'the Fleas' borders on brilliance. Dialogue in Three Parts... [is] a characteristically wrought three-movement form.
Performances are convincing throughout... Very highly recommended."
American Record Guide, November/December 1998
Common to all the pieces [on this disc] is a mature voice. Rosenzweig's melodies generally consist in short, distinct phrases describing shapely arcs, or in long lines of more conjunct intervals. More important, they are expressive and, often, memorable. All of the pieces on this disc have their pleasures, but two really stand out: Roman Passacaglias... [a] compelling piece... and the Quartet. Both of these pieces exhibit the linear fascination discussed above, but there is, in each of them, much more. This Quartet is very definitely Rosenzweig's own... It is very well written and rewarding to listen to. All of the performances on this excellent disc are very good...
Salt Lake Tribune, April 9, 1997 Review of Quartet
"... Move over Bartok and Shostakovich. Make room for... Rosenzweig. The new composition brimmed with musical substance. It is superbly cohesive, while offering its listeners plenty of entertaining variety. The 18-minute composition glided into the soul with timeless magic."
CRI CD 705
Fanfare, March/April 1996
"The present release features what, ideally, many more should: good, stimulating music by living composers... which is why I so admire this release. Its substance presumes its audience's taste and savior faire. This is music of poise and charmed intelligence, its idiom that of an evolved past... As with all good music of heart and mind, its Dionysian and Apollonian aspects reflect the maker's personality and craft----out, as it were, in fresh air and sunshine... Musically and production wise a terrific piece of work. "
Centaur CRC 2103
Fanfare, March/April 1992:
"The two movements of Morris Rosenzweig's Diptych are Another Order of Cat and Consider the Window. The composer describes the piece as 'a kind of musical cartoon. Both parts tell their own short colorful music-cartoon tales.' Another... composer, John Zorn, claims the same source of inspiration, in a recent work for the Kronos Quartet. Zorn's music and Rosenzweig's share a similar skittish energy. But where Zorn is cute and slapdash, Rosenzweig is meticulous, writing a music full of subtle balances and hidden continuities... Rosenzweig's [music] is chock full of invention and intensity, leavened with a droll and subtle wit... He is certainly a composer whose music I look forward to. Rosenzweig is also a dandy conductor. These performances all have the high sheen and scrupulous accuracy of the best new music playing in New York. [This recording] has a spark to it which is often lacking in more 'accessible' music... bright energy and intelligence."
American Record Guide, March/April 1992
"Here is a disc of well-crafted, expressive music by two composers born in the early 50's who have managed to avoid the lure of cheap gimmicks and fashionable trends. Diptych, by Morris Rosenzweig, is a 20-minute atonal serenade for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, pointillistic in style, restrained and decorative in mood, much concerned with delicate instrumental filigree and evanescent sonorities. I found it interesting and pleasurable..."
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