/ c d - r e v i e w s

Soprano (Maren S[c]hwier) and first violinist (Rachel Koblyakov) are particularly commendable performers in this album. S[c]hwier shows control and expressivity throughout Iridescent Notation.  Her performance in VI. Come Back, Come Back, O Glittering and White is extremely beautiful, and she handles the wild juxtapositions in movement IV. with ease.

Review by Thomas McGee, www.avantmusicnews.com 

 

​

​

A big standing ovation must go to soprano Maren Schwier for an incredible display of vocal acrobatics and control of colour, in what is quite a challenging work for the voice.

Review by Adam Scime, www.thewmachenote.com 

 

​

​

In Iridescent Notation, the most recently completed of these pieces, the soprano Maren Schwier necessarily utilises a variety of vocal stylings to communicate five elusive texts from the pen of the English-Irish poet Tom Raworth. [...]

He [Samuel Andreyev] is helped enormously by Schwier’s dazzling performance. [...] In the five vocal numbers Schwier employs an extraordinary variety of means to convey the stop-start stream-of-consciousness in the broken phrases of Raworth’s elusive aphorisms – Andreyev’s taxing yet communicative vocal writing exudes allure. At the conclusion of this cantata many listeners will be surprised by the lyricism and lucidity at its heart.

Review by Richard Hanlon, www.musicweb-international.com

 

​

Soprano Maren Schwier gives a sensitive “reading” of the five poems, from the strictest sung spoken word (Moonshine) to very effusive song (No Hard Feelings), with remarkable plasticity of timbre and stage presence.

Review (in the French original) by Michèle Tosi, www.resmusica.com