Patrick Harrex

Biography    •    Worklist & Discography    •    Press Comments    •    Performances    •    Programme Notes     •    Contact    •    Links

Press Comments

 

Sonata for female voice, flute & percussion - four poems of E E Cummings

 

"Patrick Harrex [has] the ability to take delight in sounds for their own sake."

William Littler, Toronto Daily Star

 


Antiphonies

 

"a stylish, effective and deeply felt work."

Anthony Payne, Music and Musicians

 

"...consistently interesting."

Anthony Payne, The Times

 


Colloquy

 

"…a precise imagination, sensitive ear, accomplished technique, and economy in the textural treatment and working out of ideas. Harrex’s Colloquy, a near-static piece with inside piano sounds, is guided over its short single movement construction by complete integrity. Colloquy is indeed the nicely proportioned and eventful study in statics that it seemed to be when it won the BBC Composers’ Competition."

Gerald Larner, The Guardian

 

"A cleverly devised sequence of pianistic images gave it a compelling interest."

Neil Tierney, Daily Telegraph

 

"...a clearly imagined and effective composition which made its mark with strict economy of material."

Neil Barka, Liverpool Daily Post

 

"Economy of effects and an acute oral sense were its chief characteristics."

PMD, Liverpool Echo

 

"...well-argued."

Denis Arnold, The Listener

 


Les Pyrénées

"This proved to be an atmospheric work, full of experiments in tone quality, with large percussion sections, chorus, soprano soloist (Noelle Barker), who sang the poem by René Char, and speaker (Eric Hawkins) who recited the poem by du Bartas…a sincere and deeply felt work."

FW, Yorkshire Evening Press

 

"Up to date in its choice of sonorities."

Brian Newbould, Times Educational Supplement

 

"This work [employs] a small, fragmented and sometimes whispering chorus and a most effective battery of percussion – an intelligent work, full of beauty and strength."

Josephine Rayner, Northern Echo

 


Hauptweg und Nebenwege

 

"[I] was much taken by Harrex’s piece prompted by the grid-like structure and subtle colouring of a Paul Klee picture."

Peter Grahame Woolf, Musical Pointers

 


Rhythm of Black Lines

 

"‘Rhythm of Black Lines’ was worth the admission fee on its own."

Lindsay Parkin, Latest 7 Magazine