Acclaim

ASTRAL BLUE CD

Now one may wonder why I'm reviewing this album at all, and this is just at the "B-side", which begins with the song "Astral Blue" by Peter Lieuwen. Lieuwen is unfortunately neglected among his native composers. Nevertheless, Lieuwen is one to which we must point out, because he has everything a good neotonal composer must have: flawless craft, his own, personal "voice" that is immediately recognizable and, above all, he writes wonderfully inspired, really good music that is modern in the best sense even though, conceptually, Lieuwen largely works in a compositional framework that was already in full force in the 19th century. His music is reminiscent in parts of John Luther Adams, but is much better and also has a unique "touch" that makes a piece of Lieuwen just unmistakably a piece of Lieuwen. Unfortunately, there are, next to the wonderful piece "Astral Blue", only two other CDs (one at Albany Records and Naxos). For us Germans, we are realistically not likely to enjoy a piece of Lieuwen’s in a German concert event. Otherwise there is here in one place ebb, where I personally would like to see a flood, especially because Lieuwen’s music would appeal to a quite large audience, as it is immediately accessible.

Grete CatusTHE NEW LISTENER (Germany)