About Us: Concert Reviews
"Cantori New York's program offered more to sink your teeth into....[Chris DeBlasio's The Best Beloved], four fine settings of Elizabethan poems touching on homosexual love and imminent death, has an innate lightness, less a raging against the dying of the light than a sweet image of sunset.
[T]he program's highlight was a major piece: the Requiem of
the Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür in its American
premiere. Strong and distinctive, it explored every aspect
of texture and text....the work moved inexorably from the
opening lines, intoned darkly and richly by the basses, to
the full-chorus conclusion, 'Lux aeterna,' a fierce,
consuming blaze of light."
--The New York Times (Midgette)
"[Friedrich Cerha's cantata An die Herrscher der Welt]
shimmered with a nervous, mid-century beauty. Harmonies
hovered poignantly on the threshold of tonality, pristine
chantlike pasages soured with dissonance, and hope and
pessimism crisscrossed in vivid antiphony....Cantori sang
[Duruflé's motets] with soft-edged, pastel tones--finely
blended, rich and mellifluous."
--The New York Times (Eichler)
"It isn't every day one gets to review the world premiere of
a piece that's nearly 100 years old....Ondine is a lovely,
lissome thing.... Cantori presented it very well. The rest
of the program was filled with meaty pieces.... Each of
Debussy's beautiful Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans cast
its own distinct mood.... The group's spirit of exploration
is laudable.... An enjoyable evening." "
--The New York Times (Midgette)
"....an air of occasion....a performance that combined
moving restraint with narrative urgency. "
--The New York Times (Tommasini)
"The choir, directed by Mark Shapiro, sang with uncommon
polish. Few part-time choruses produce as unified and
velvety a sound... "
--The New York Times (Kozinn)
"The choir's flexibility in dynamics and coloration was
consistently striking, as was its gorgeously regulated tone.
"
--The New York Times (Kozinn)
"Beyond criticism."
--The Westsider
Excellent Oratorio Receives Standing Ovation. "Precision of
voice and instrument was excellent."
--Asbury Park Press
"A virtuoso performance....a spectacular tour de force. "
--The Star-Ledger
