Reviews

Reviews for the Kinderkreuzzug Cantata:

     "Ralf Gawlick's Kinderkreuzzug is both an eloquent and powerful work. Like Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, it casts an extraordinary spell over the listener, here amplifying the poignant and tragic text of Bertolt Brecht in a raw and visceral way. The spectacle of three youth choirs, both individually and in combination, as well as their accompaniment by the sparest of instrumental combinations, conveys more powerfully than anything else the subject of "war, and the pity of war", in the words of Wilfred Owens, the poet for Britten's War Requiem. It is this work that Ralf Gawlick's piece calls to mind more directly than anything written since."

Dr. Peter G. Watchorn
Executive Producer, Co-founder & President
Musica Omnia, Inc.

     "In a word: Ausgezeichnet! The Brecht text alone is enough to destroy one's sense of equilibrium, but your music to this particular text delivers a very powerful statement without diminishing at all Brecht's work. (It is frequently hard to find that kind of musical respect for an author's work these days). It is a beautiful work, wonderfully crafted. It's affect on me could best be described in German: 'tiefer Eindruck.' I have to admit that Brecht already moves me when he switches from the telling of the story to contemplation about it. But your music virtually melted me at that point. Very moving, indeed."

Robert Schuneman
President, ECS Publishing
Producer, ARSIS Audio

Review for Solo & Chamber Works on Musica Omnia (MO 0309):

     Ralf Yusef Gawlick (b. 1969), of Kurdish descent, was born in Germany and educated in Austria and the United States; he now teaches as Boston University, just down the road from me. I have not heard his music before but find it highly persuasive. Mysterium Doloris Quintae, Op.6 (1997) is a provocative and wide-ranging fantasy for solo piano that weaves quoatations of Bach, Mozart, and children's songs into Gawlick's own eclectic manner. The stylistic heterogeneity fits breath of the poetic topic: the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. In Glocken-Spiel, Op.11 (2004), for piano quartet (also the newest work here), Gawlick unifies various opposites- ostinato versus free material, extremes of register, disjunct and conjunct gestures- all the while managing to effect a musical shape remarkably cogent and satisfying. The Sonata-Mazur (2001), Op.8 has the subtitle Aus der Ferne (from a distance): in this work, Gawlick evokes space by the slow transformation and interaction of his musical materials and by the temporal distance represented by musical styles (mazurka, landler) that stongly suggest 19th Century idioms. The last wrk here is a four- movement piano trio (1993) that is far more conventional in form. It reminds me of Shostakovich, but a Shostakovich much less ironic and acerbic than I'm used to. Ther performances and recording are first-rate. The liner notes include commentary by the composer nd by the theorist Ellio Antokoletz. All in all, an exciting release.

Rob Haskins
American Record Guide

Review for Concerto Concertante per Sei Instrumenti on Capstone CPS-8712:

     This disc has made me ponder the vagaries of fame and reputation. All the music on the program is as good as any I have heard recently, all by composers and performers I know nothing about; obviously, this is not as it should be. So this is my job to remedy that to the extent that such is possible by a minor critic, albeit in an important journal. Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (b.1969) is pondering the eternal in his Concerto Concertante per Sei Instrumenti for two pianos and string quartet. It is a big work in three movements, taking its overall inspiration from the verse in Isaiah set by Monteverdi in his Duo Seraphim (Vespers 1610). Gawlick's music is full of huge gestures, and the masses of sonority belie the chamber group producing it. His style is an expanded tonality a la Messiaen, where consonance and dissonance exist more for their coloristic potential than as the tension and release of diatonic tonality. Masterfully written in the traditional three movements, it makes me curious to hear more of the composer's work. This is all immensely rewarding music, well worth repeated hearing.

John Story
Fanfare