ON OSSABAW ISLAND DREAM

P. STULTS, NORTHWEST ARTS
Most rewarding of this concert, and in fact of all the others referred to here, was the world premiere of Ossabaw Island Dream, a song cycle by Daniel Asia set to similarly titled poetry of Paul Pines — rewarding because it is accessible, interesting, well-written, and new.

M. BARGREEN, SEATTLE TIMES
Asia has won consistent praise for both his compositions and his work with the New York new-music ensemble Musical Elements. His Ossabaw Island Dream, a song cycle given its West Coast premiere in these concerts (by the Northwest Chamber Orchestra), is a well-crafted work full of complex meters and interesting textures….found considerable favor with the audience.

ON PINES SONGS

T. PFAFF, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Pines Songs favors a freely tonal idiom with a strong melodic profile.

L. CAVALLARO, NEW HAVEN REGISTER
Pines Songs captured the many moods imaginatively, whether conveying gloom, mirth, pessimism, or surreality. ‘White Pillars’ reflected the strangeness effectively in both solo part and accompaniment, while the ending of ‘I Walk Out To The End’ had some lovely tonal colors.

J. ROCKWELL, NEW YORK TIMES
The concert ended with Mr. Asia’s 25-minute “Pines Songs” (1984), which consists of five settings of poems by Paul Pines and two optional instrumental interludes, played on Tuesday for the first time in this country. It sounded appealing, in its Impressionistic way.

ON SAND II

D. HENAHAN, NEW YORK TIMES
Mr. Asia, an accomplished young composer who has already received a string of awards, grants and commissions, writes in a style that might be described as post-Webern Impressionism, since echoes of late Debussy as well as mid century serialism could be heard in this work (Sand II)…there was a promising talent on display here…

A. MARKS, MUSICAL TIMES, LONDON
Asia’s own work, Sand II, contained beautiful textures and inventive scoring.

W. SALISBURY, CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
The concert’s central work was Sand II, a set of six poems by Gary Snyder for voice, flutes, clarinet, percussion and pianos. The voice, given a bluesy inflection, alternately rose out of crumbling sonorities, faded into the blurred textures and created mysterious moods.