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Welcome
to Simaku's little chunk of cyberspace
Thomas Simaku's CD released
on Naxos 21st
Century Classics
Press
Quotes
" ... the
elegance of Ligeti and the gritty intensity of Kurtág, a
fascinating combination."
"
I
get the sense of pure music in a serious vein, its composer driven only
by an internal need to express himself."
Fanfare
Magazine,
USA, September/October 2008, review by James H. North
"Pointillist
in its concentration or copiously expansive –
expressive
versus frail and delicate – sometimes
clear, present and immediate, and sometimes
like noise,
coming out of three dimensional space and as if from another age. It is
barely conceivable that two voices, accompanying and contrasting one
another, and each laden with different associations, are both played by
one and the same bow."
"Simaku's idiom combines
avant-gardism and modality in a manner all its
own."
Avangarde
und Ethnologie vereint, by
Frank
Kämpfer, Deutschlandfunk, Cologne, July 2008
"The works recorded here confirm my
early impressions when I first heard some of Simaku’s music. Here is a
composer who obviously has things to say and who knows how to say them
best."
MusicWeb International, 2008, review by Hubert Culot
" Tumultuous
and glistening, with
a deeply convincing inner
strength, structural integrity and
an impressively thunderous
character." Politiken
- Copenhagen, 2005
[Hyllus
for Orchestra]
"
... an imaginative and captivating piece. "
ISCM -
World New Music Magazine, July 2006
"
...
a piece of controlled, dramatic and surprisingly individual
power."
Keith
Potter, Tempo, Cambridge,
April 2005
[String
Quartets ]
"
Thomas
Simaku's string quartets have much to commend them ...
Simaku has a keen
ear for the texture of sounds. He writes sympathetically and
perceptively for the strings, taking full advantage of the varying
timbres in their individual sonorities. His
collective,
co-operative
statements could be loud and stern or soft and laid-back. An
inner core of firmness, self-acceptance and repose underpin a series of
animated explorations, almost imperceptibly. This
stability renders
sound free to soar and experiment. These
'voices from heaven' have an animated serenity, quite secular, outside
time." Kenneth
Carter - Classical Source, July 2007
[Réflexions
de la Croix III]
" ...
the
only work in the concert which had a real individual charisma."
Stuttgarter
Nachrichten - July 2006 - Review
of musikFabrik concert at the ISCM, Stuttgart
"This
work was written for the brilliant Sheppard Skaerved, whose virtuoso
violin playing fascinated the audience as it penetrated the ensemble's
dynamic, streaming energy. " Politiken
- Copenhagen, 2005
[Radius
for 11 solo strings]
"...
the
work's periodic climactic outbursts achieved striking effect." The Guardian, 2005
[Soliloquy
I]
" In
Simaku's Soliloquy, the expressive and technical potential of
the solo violin is brilliantly
transformed into an intense dramatic
flow, where everything makes sense." Politiken
- Copenhagen, 2004
" A piece of
unaccompanied violin writing which brings out the
instrument's genius for
passionate
expression, fully realised in the young Luxembourg violinist Vania
Lecuit's riveting interpretation."
Peter Graham Woolf - Seen &
Heard,
London - review of the ISCM Festival, Luxembourg 2000
"...what surprised
the public the most and motivated the most comments, was Soliloquy
by
Simaku ... [who] demonstrated an astonishing knowledge of the
violin." mundoclassico, Spain, 2002
[Soliloquy
III]
"... Soliloquy
III for solo viola by Thomas Simaku explores a wide range of high
harmonics and microtonal effects, rapidly switching from violent
chordal attacks to spare bowed fragments, reminiscent of Georgy Kurtág in its spare atomistic
compression." Sun-Sentinel, Florida - review
of the American Premiere at
Miami ISCM festival 2002
[The
Eagle on the Cross]
"The technical
command, dramatic pacing
and vivid orchestration made
for a
seriously impressive musical essay
with a real sense of purpose
and outrage." Yorkshire Evening Press, 1999
[Tanglewood
Trio]
" Tanglewood
Trio....makes clear the striking qualities of this musician from
Tirana." St Gallen Tagblatt,
Switzerland, 1997
[Three Albanian Folk Songs]
" The
elegant quality of the dark-sounding songs, by Thomas Simaku,
was
never in doubt." Birmingham Post, 2001
[Guirlande
de Flutes]
"
Guirlande
de Flutes is a welcome and original addition to the Flute Choir /
Ensemble repertoire. Simaku employs the music of his homeland in a
refreshing way and provides 15 minutes of memorable writing."
Flute Magazine, London, 1999
Last
updated -
September 2009
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