Orchestral Works

ON SYMPHONY NO. 5

CATHALENA E. BURCH, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 11/8/2008
Asia’s adventurous Fifth gets rousing premiere in Oro Valley

The 37-minute symphony, conducted by George Hanson, is at times sublimely accessible, with interludes of lush melodic string passages.

MORE…

ON WHY (?) JACOB

CATHALENA E. BURCH, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 4/12/2008
Even more exciting on the program was the world premiere of the orchestral arrangement of Tucson composer Daniel Asia’s “Why (?) Jacob.” The piece was scheduled for the concert’s first half but was moved to the second, probably so that it would not get lost in the power of Licad’s performance. It was a wise move. “Why (?) Jacob,” which Asia wrote in 1979 and arranged for full orchestra last year, is a nostalgic piece that reflects on a childhood friend killed in the 1973 Israel Yom Kippur War. The piece’s strength lies in its melancholy as much as its nagging question of why, punctuated by a percussive blast midstream that sounded like a gunshot. It’s a powerful work that the TSO played with reverence.

B. HOLLAND, NEW YORK TIMES
Daniel Asia’s Black Light… purveyed the new hedonism-a sensuous approach to sound and a generous exploitation of instruments–that makes orchestras want to schedule such music and listeners pay to hear it.

ON BLACK LIGHT

D. DROBATSCHEWSKY, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Daniel Asia’s Black Light was the program opener that had patrons on the edge of their seats.

ON GATEWAYS

J. GELFAND, THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
The second half premiered Daniel Asia’s Gateways, a brilliant fanfare with appealing character and colorful, Stravinsky-esque harmony and texture. Its superb orchestration is evidence of the craftsmanship of this composer.

M. BARGREEN, THE SEATTLE TIMES
Schub’s performance of the challenging but listener-friendly Piano Concerto is a tour de force. Sedares and the orchestra handle the complex and varied orchestration with an excellence that underscores the New Zealand Symphony’s fine reputation….this recording should make a major step toward getting Asia the recognition he deserves.

M. E. HUTTON, THE CINCINNATI POST
Asia’s celebratory “Gateways” caught the CSO full sail. Written in honor of the CSO’s 100th anniversary, the title recalls Cincinnati’s historic “gateway” role. Combining intricate rhythms and boisterous Midwestern braggadocio, it sounds like a mix of Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. Brassy, robust “oompahs” alternate with quieter episodes, conveying an infectious, all-American optimism… In fact, if another “Fanfare for the Common Man” (by Aaron Copland, premiered by the CSO in 1943) is to come from this season’s crop of centennial fanfares, Asia’s “Gateways” may be it.

ON PIANO CONCERTO

J. KACZMARCZYK, THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
One of the most active orchestral composers working today,…Asia’s work is a remarkable pastiche of colorful orchestration surrounding jazzy rhythms and dark romanticism with an internal depth, almost a brooding intensity, propelling it forward.

A. BAER, ATLANTIC MONTHLY
Pianists have no shortage of concertos to choose from. Still, the appearance of a significant new one is no everyday affair. Daniel Asia’s, commissioned by a consortium of six regional American orchestras,…aspires to a place in the grand tradition. Exposure by the box-office virtuosi with America’s Big Five orchestras is overdue.

ON THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED

D. BUCKLEY, TUCSON CITIZEN
A heavily syncopated piece…, the score percolated sonic bits around the orchestra nearly constantly to create shifting arrays of color and texture. Utmost accuracy and perfect fit were demanded of every player. Yet Hanson and his forces dotted every I and crossed every T of the mosaic patchwork.

ON CELLO CONCERTO

P. KIRALY, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Asia’s concerto is a work with plenty to offer to both audience and performers, and it was a pleasure to have Carter Brey, who participated in the commission, as its protagonist… The whole is a substantive work, 24 minutes long, characterful, and with engaging, often tonal melody; a listenable work I’d have liked to hear again, right away, to take in some more of its subtleties.

T. LINDEMAN, NEWS & RECORD
The three-movement work showed Asia to have an excellent grasp of the cello’s expressive potential and a wonderful sense of orchestration.

ON SYMPHONY NO. 1

M. E. HUTTON, CINCINNATI POST
Asia’s five-movement work shows astonishing skill in handling the orchestra.

R. M. CAMPBELL, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Asia is adept at creating tone colors that are unexpected but once heard make immediate sense. He has a keen ear for orchestral timbre,…and seems willing to…take whatever is meaningful to him and make music with it. That he does, with considerable sophistication.

ON SYMPHONY NO. 2

J. REEL, THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Asia is a compositional comet who has been steadily speeding in from the icier reaches of the modern solar system. For this symphony, Asia has crossed the orbits of such American composers as David Diamond, Walter Piston, and Leonard Bernstein.

K. LAFAVE, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
(The) peculiarly elevating juncture of restlessness and stasis, lushness and austerity, grandiosity and intimacy that the work produces speaks quietly and urgently to the human condition at large.

D. DROBATSCHEWSKY, ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Composer Daniel Asia’s Second Symphony…proved a popular success with its easily accessible harmonic structure, its relentless buildup of intensity and drama, and the infectiously rhythmical beat of its final movement.

ON SYMPHONY NO. 3

D. BUCKLEY, TUCSON CITIZEN
There can be no denying that Asia’s Symphony No. 3 is a work of daring textural sophistication that hums like a harmonious massage for ears and mind.

K. LAFAVE, THE PHOENIX GAZETTE
Woodwinds and trumpets four deep, six horns and two harps and a large percussion battery sound individual ‘filigreed’ patterns against a backdrop of embracing strings, until the patterns break at the end….in many ways Asia’s finest work to date.

ON SYMPHONY NO. 4

K. LAFAVE, THE PHOENIX GAZETTE
The Fourth’s first three movements are each in their way lovely…This elegy (of the fourth movement) shares with its predecessors an honesty of expression.

J. REEL, THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
With its open harmonies, thin textures, classical structures, reduction of metric complexities….this score lies on the page as tidily as a Haydn symphony.

ON B FOR J

D. HAGEN, EAR MAGAZINE
B for J, conducted by the composer, Daniel Asia, featured sensitive, finely-wrought melodies.

D. BUCKLEY, TUCSON CITIZEN
B for J was another highlight of the program. Alternating sections of lyrically composed music for flute and bass clarinet were contrasted with a solo trombone and cushioned by an otherworldly bed of higher strings, synthesized organ and rumbling basses. The work seemed timeless and ethereal and was well-received by the audience.

J. REEL, THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
B for J alternates and combines a pair of simple, even pretty melodies (one for flute and bassoon, the other for trombone) which are given an enigmatically tense accompaniment. The work was immediately likable.