Brion; 2 Songs from Silas Marner; Sindbad; Exiles
by Robert Carl, Fanfare Magazine
03/01/2011

Brion; 2 Songs from Silas Marner; Sindbad; Exiles
by Carson Cooman, Fanfare Magazine
03/01/2011

CD review: Harold Meltzer, "Brion, Sindbad, Exiles"
by Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
10/31/2010

Sounds Heard: Harold Meltzer—Brion; Sindbad; Exiles
by Frank J. Oteri, New Music Box
10/26/2010

Concertos II
by Kilpatrick, American Record Guide
07/30/2010

The concertos for cello, solo bass clarinet and oboe makes this disc an inviting experiment in the contemporary concerto
by Robert Moon, Audiophile Audition
04/15/2010

Cellos Add Wordless But Lyrical Voices
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
03/04/2008

Stylistic Wanderings and Flirtations With Multimedia And Jazz
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
04/18/2007

Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With An Urban Complexity
by Allan Kozinn, New York Times
01/10/2007

A Menu Of Familiar Signposts And A One-Woman Opera
by Anne Midgette, New York Times
04/02/2005

American Piano of the 1940s
by Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide
01/01/2005

Sequitur-Concertos
BBC Music Magazine
04/01/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Ian Quinn, American Record Guide
01/31/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Ken Smith, Gramaphone Magazine
01/01/2004

Sequitur -- Concertos (Albany)
by Christian Carey, splendidzine.com
01/01/2004

Sequitur-Concertos
by Steve Smith, Time Out New York
11/20/2003

Eclecticism and Humor in Works by Lewis Spratlan
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
11/14/2003

Meditations on Power, Old and Freshly
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
05/22/2003

Sequitur's new-music cabarets offer contemporary classics with theatrical flair
by Brian WIse, Time Out New York
05/15/2003

Music In Review: Sequitur
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
05/24/2002

A High-Energy Romp Through The Raucous 1940's
by Anne Midgette, New York Times
10/27/2001

Seasons of Squawks on the Crows' Calendar
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
03/01/2001

Two Flutists Explore the 20th-Century Repertory
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
10/28/2000

Concert Connects New With Newer
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
04/28/2000

Poetry as the Setting for Meditations on a Child's Death
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
11/16/1999

The Sound of the City
by Robert Hilferty, The Village Voice
01/26/1999

Music: Classical and New
by Rose Martelli, newyork.citysearch.com
01/18/1999

New Songs Spring Forth In a Lively Mixture
by Paul Griffiths, The New York Times
01/13/1999

A Cozy Cabaret Of Comical Sultriness
by Justin Davidson, New York Newsday
01/12/1999

Sequitur: George Crumb Concert
by Kenneth Goldsmith, New York Press
11/18/1998

Clash Of The Titans: Two Legendary Composers are Feted
by Ken Smith, Time Out New York
10/22/1998

Sequitur: Kaye Playhouse Concert
by Mark W. Greenfest, The New Music Connoisseur
05/18/1997

New Works Teeming With Fauna
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
02/22/1997

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Seasons of Squawks on the Crows' Calendar
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
03/01/2001

When Lewis Spratlan won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for music for Act II of his opera "Life Is a Dream," which was performed only in concert, he assumed that some company would finally present a complete production of it. Though written in 1978, it was still unproduced. Inexplicably, no company has yet offered.

Thanks to the adventurous contemporary-music ensemble Sequitur, he has at least had his first major New York premiere in more than 10 years, the chamber work "When Crows Gather" (1986). It opened Sequitur's bracing program on Tuesday night at Merkin Concert Hall, which was nearly packed.

Scored unusually for violin, cello, piano and three clarinets, "When Crows Gather" was inspired by an incident one December morning when a throng of crows gathered in some trees outside Mr. Spratlan's studio in western Massachusetts and led him to some musical ruminations about the seasons. In the onrushing opening section, the instruments evoke wintry winds through swooshing, darting thematic lines, before the music settles into a loopy dance.

An Ivesian episode follows in which choralelike evocations of summertime parlor songs and a near-inaudible piano rag are jabbed by spiky counterpoint for strings. The whole ends with what could be called the "Crow Squawk Toccata." But the sense of whimsy is undercut by Mr. Spratlan's complex and gritty harmonic language. The arresting piece was conducted by Paul Hostetter.

In "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing," a world premiere, the composer, Randall Woolf, inventively incorporates the sounds of a turntable artist, which is what practitioners of the scratching technique introduced by rock D.J.'s and rappers are now being called. The scratched recorded sounds of a string quartet were bounced off a live amplified quartet playing the same alternately sweet-tempered and grating music. Christina Wheeler sang a text by Valeria Vasilevski in an unintelligible and deadpan style. The piece is an indulgent jumble, though Mr. Woolf has a keen ear and irreverent wit.

There was also too much going on at once in "Nu Kuan Tzu" (1996) by Mathew Rosenblum, scored for 11 instruments, taped elements and two singers. The work giddily fuses equal-temperament and microtonal tunings, evocations of pop and French Impressionism, and texts ranging from ancient Chinese poetry to Rimbaud. Mr. Rosenblum has technique and a vivid imagination. But this sometimes crazy, sometimes dreamy score made the best impression when the least dense. The performance under Mr. Hostetter was again compelling.
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