Press Acclaim

"The year opened with Sanctuary Road, a lyrical and historically vibrant oratorio by Paul Moravec, reintroducing William Still, an American hero who ushered hundreds of enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad and then documented it all."

"As WRTI continues to mark Black History Month, we feature an album that celebrates, through contemporary music, the writings of the 19th-century Philadelphia abolitionist William Still. Still wrote a book titled The Underground Railroad in 1872, which detailed his efforts aiding runaway slaves. Three years ago, that book inspired the Pulitzer-winning contemporary American composer Paul Moravec to write Sanctuary Road, a work he calls an 'American historical oratorio.'"

“The compelling score by Moravec remains as melodic as it is thrilling. It not only creates a wall of pulsating sound for the chorus but also conceives a set of arias for the soloists that brings individual stories unmistakably to life–thanks to a libretto by Campbell that gathers vivid and heart-rending details from Still’s journals and turns them into real people.”

“…the piece, especially when its richly melodic and emotionally expressive score is so accessible, is in its entirety a triumph.”

“Sanctuary Road is a modern choral masterpiece, representing struggle and hope in the best of the oratorio tradition.”

“Largely tonal, intensely dramatic"

"Moravec's powerful gift for melody and a thrusting line gave each of the soloists an opportunity to shine in rendering a variety of characters."

"An episodic journey through history"

"The composer says in his booklet notes that ‘a well-balanced mixed chorus singing perfectly in tune strikes me as the most beautiful and resonant of sonorities’. The New England Conservatory Concert Choir and Chamber Singers give him all that and, with expert work from the orchestra and earnest, generally splendid work from the soloists, give a passionate and committed performance."

Lasting more than an hour, it is a major, unusual addition to the choral repertory.

"Moravec’s score has been widely performed and for good reason. Both musically complex and enticing to the ear, the Tempest Fantasy is an outstanding 21st-century addition to the chamber music literature."

"Called 'Light Shall Lift Us (for Orlando),' the 6-minute piece features lyrics by Mark Campbell. Both in music and words, the work is stirring in its simplicity, full of clear imagery and comforting symbolism."

“This operatic treatment of Stephen King’s breakthrough horror-thriller (1977) manages not only to distill the narrative intensity of the original but—its most significant achievement—transforms The Shining into valid operatic terms that transcend the thriller trappings.”

“…Moravec’s score for the opera incorporates propulsive, percussion-driven sounds for what could be called the “mad scenes” of Act Two, along with appropriately eerie moments as tension-builders, but most of the music is tonal and Romantic and yet doesn’t sound old-fashioned — the soaring, exultant lyricism, for instance, in the opening scene as Jack and the family anticipate — almost too eagerly — their “new life,” or at the very end, the beautifully written coda scene, where Dick Hallorann, the cook, consoles Danny and Wendy as the strings play delicate chamber music.”

“Moravec and Campbell create a score that embellishes all the dread and mayhem that appear on stage.”

"Paul Moravec composed the music for The Shining, and reviews agree he did an excellent job instilling the Overlook with the blood-curdlingly creepy vibes Stephen King’s The Shining was meant to have. Moravec says The Shining was perfect for converting into a musical, because a large portion of the story centers around the internal struggles and inner monologues of the individual characters."

"Superbly conducted by Michael Christie, Moravec’s music rises, falls, teases, terrifies and whirls like a torrent around the room. At times, the sound of the strings hangs in the air like a darkening cloud. There are bright, exultant moments, such as the opening scene when the Torrances catch their first hopeful glimpse of the magnificent Overlook."

"From Paul Moravec’s score full of discomfiting themes that clash and collide to strongly sung and disarmingly believable portrayals of characters alive and otherwise, “The Shining” is an unqualified success…"

"The music conveys the tension building in the characters’ internal worlds as Jack’s sanity unravels…"

“Paul Moravec’s music sets the tone from the first moments. It’s a rich, multi-layered soundscape that breathes life into the Overlook Hotel, which is both the setting and the villain of the piece.”

“Moravec has set this tale with accessible, expressive music. The text can be clearly understood, thanks to both composer and cast, and supertitles are often not needed. There are moments of affecting lyrical beauty, particularly the moving (if predictable) final aria by Halloran, the resort’s cook and the story’s rescuer, who reassures Danny that “You’re doing fine by yourself . . . Just fine.” Other major characters — Jack, Wendy, and the spectral figure of Jack’s brutal father — all have expressive music.”

“The new opera surges forward on the strength of electrifying music by Paul Moravec. The singers, performing a libretto by Mark Campbell, float atop the orchestral score like uncertain vessels on a roiling sea as their stay as demons awake to torture them. It’s a hell of a ride.”

“What it lacks in showstopping solos, Moravec’s music makes up for in its ability to create tension and drive the conflict. It’s a demanding score, but conductor Michael Christie and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra shape it with a deft blend of strength and subtlety.”

"The star attraction, however, was “Music, Awake!,” making its world premiere. Composed by Paul Moravec with words by Terry Teachout, the piece was commissioned by the society to honor John Sinclair for his 25 years as music director. … Moravec has nicely woven a more contemplative section about the power of music in dark times into the jubilance of the work."

"Bachmann plays with a high gloss that makes obvious Moravec’s gifts for lyrical writing, both in the concerto itself and in a pair of works for violin and piano: the pensive Equilibrium, composed for the present album; and the effusive, old-fashioned album leaf Evermore (2004)."

"From American composer Paul Moravec, born in 1957, came the 2003 Chamber Symphony, scored for flute, oboe, horn, violin, cello, piano and percussion. Here, too, is much sheer energy, the busy textures replete with shifting meters and dancing syncopations. The slow movement, marked “Slow, Singing, Rubato,” is icily atmospheric. Although the music doesn’t sound like Hindemith, it has a bit of the German composer’s DNA."

“Paul Moravec’s “Brandenburg Gate” (No. 2) suggests not only the title arch but the fall of the Berlin Wall, with a musical motif based on the letters of Bach’s name.”

"Seasonally enough, last night I attended Blizzard of Voices, an oratorio by Paul Moravec (husband to your friend and mine Wendy Lamb). While you might have thought the warm and woody Jordan Hall would have been an oasis in Boston's horrible weather, Moravec's commemoration of the 1888 Schoolhouse Blizzard was terrible--in the exactest sense--in its evocation of the wind and cold and terror and death that swept over the Great Plains and killed more than two hundred people."

"Moravec’s darkly tonal music captured these stories in powerful dramatic detail in this expansive, 70-minute work."

“Mr. Moravec’s program (Feb. 10) demonstrated his operatic bona fides in effective character pieces from his two completed operas, “The King’s Man,” about Benjamin Franklin, and “The Letter,” after W. Somerset Maugham, before unveiling a bit of his current project, “The Shining” — yes, an operatic setting of the Stephen King novel — which will have its premiere at the Minnesota Opera in 2016.”

Alias followed with a performance of Bouldin’s “Agora,” set to Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Tempest Fantasy. I can see why this won the Pulitzer. The music is straightforward, neo-romantic, with some ingenious pairings of sub-tone clarinet with strings.

“…Paul Moravec’s Amorisms and Sacred Love Songs (both performed with the splendid vocalists of Portara Ensemble) – explored various aspects of love. Alias also premiered composer (and Alias cellist) Matt Walker’s Grooves for string quartet. All three of these works received memorable premieres.”

…the Piano Quintet by Paul Moravec allows the [Lark Quartet] to respond to their stiffest challenge of all as they interact with pianist Jeremy Denk in a work that keeps all our artists constantly alert for the diverse ways its shape is constantly changing through morphing blue notes, stacked fifths in the piano, and textures that are variously terse and spiky, broadly stated, and luminous. This work will reveal more of its beauties to the listener upon repeated audition, something for which the artists share credit with the composer.

Most impressive [on this disc] is Paul Moravec’s 23-minute, profoundly conservative, deeply absorbing Piano Quintet, commissioned in 2006 to honor the philanthropist Adam Aronson. Amid the rigorous charting of its blueprinted lines, textures and occasional harmonic ecstasies, there are astonishing moments of physical beauty, such as [the piano’s] sumptuous solo opening the second movement.

"This is a disc that reflects the wide range of American music in the 20th and 21st century."

While Moravec is a broadly tonal composer, the opening reveals music that is spare, delicate and mysterious. The organization of the ideas is not only skilled and restrained but also has a circular quality – motifs and gestures heard in the first movement recur later on. As Andrew Waggoner puts it in his booklet note: ‘Everything comes around in this work, around and together and apart again.’ It is a very well-written piece and one that draws on some extremely refined sonorities from the ensemble. It’s hard to imagine a more committed and carefully prepared performance – Denk and the Lark Quartet make a compelling case for it.”

"American composer Paul Moravec, asked to write a short work for the SOLI Chamber Ensemble’s 20th anniversary, responded with a sort of Dagwood canapé, a mere four minutes in duration but stacked sky-high with a fridgeful of ideas."

“The effect of this music is that rare thing in this day: music that is deeply engaged with the tradition, mining familiar forms and gestures, and yet somehow giving them integrity, authenticity, and personality. I never feel this is a rehash. Moravec strikes me as one who has found a way to look into the resources of the past without becoming reactionary. I continue to eagerly anticipate his future discoveries.”

"Two more-commonly heard quartets, by Leos Janacek and Antonin Dvorak, received professional but unremarkable renditions, while a relatively new work by American composer Paul Moravec stood out."

"Mr. Moravec’s response is that of a painter. Scored for six soloists and a large chorus and orchestra, the oratorio becomes a vast canvas filled with vivid depictions of nature; chiaroscuro changes in lighting; and individual characters fixed with quick, confident brush strokes… For the most part the music is tonal, and Mr. Moravec’s writing for the solo singers aims for an unaffected simplicity…The musical depiction of the outbreak of the storm was nothing short of terrifying."

"The Moravec concerto dates from 2010 but arrived at Symphony in C on Friday in revised form, with authoritative soloist Maria Bachmann and a much clearer train of thought as it walks a delicate line between melodiousness and a subterranean thread that gives it long-term continuity. Imagine Delius minus the attention deficit disorder."

"On Northern Lights Electric, Mr. Moravec gets a strong showing with two major pieces for orchestra (the eponymous work and “Sempre diritto!“) and two concerti, one for clarinet (masterfully performed by David Krakauer) and the other for cello (sensitively realized by Matt Haimovitz)."

“Northern Lights Electric is another terrific album from BMOP Sound, the five-year-old indie record label of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and its conductor Gil Rose. Together they make a strong case for Moravec’s ability to represent a broad range of musical real estate.”

“Northern Lights Electric, the title track on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s 24th(!) self-released recording in five years, demonstrates just how finely matched the Project is to the album’s star composer, Paul Moravec. The polished sort of pleaser that could effortlessly raise the curtain on a subscription concert, this is a symphonic poem for people who love symphonic poems."

"Although Moravec originally composed the song cycle Vita Brevis for tenor and piano in 2001, he re-arranged it for voice and piano trio in 2009 and that is how it was presented on Saturday night by Farley with Moravec behind the piano, joined by NYCMF’s President and CEO Elmira Darvarova on violin and Samuel Magill on cello. It’s a surprisingly uncommon combination—the only other work so scored that’s immediately coming to my mind is Rorem’s Auden Songs from 1989—but as Moravec pointed out in his comments to the audience it’s nice to be able to match long vocal notes with instruments that can sustain."

It’s a surprisingly uncommon combination—the only other work so scored that’s immediately coming to my mind is Rorem’s Auden Songs from 1989—but as Moravec pointed out in his comments to the audience it’s nice to be able to match long vocal notes with instruments that can sustain."

"This is indeed a well-wrought creation, heavily influenced by Gershwin in its jazz-leaning harmonies and its plain-spoken lyricism but with a voice of its own."

“This is indeed a well-wrought creation, heavily influenced by Gershwin in its jazz-leaning harmonies and its plain-spoken lyricism but with a voice of its own. Geoffrey Burleson thrived on a piano part that becomes at times almost concertolike.”