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Andrea Clearfield Composer and Pianist |
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Reviews
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Area composers alike only in their differences
"Andrea Clearfield juggles traditional lyricism and genial polytonal collages with a virtuosity that never contradicted the title of her new piece, Romanza, premiered over the weekend by violinist Gloria Justen and Orchestra 2001. It could be a lasting contribution to chamber concerto repetoire: How many composers so coherently morph from a string quartet to Stravinskian neoclassicism?"
- David Patrick Stearns
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, May 23, 2006
'Golem Psalms,' a Kodály work, and organ antics
"Some of those half concerts have been among the best of the season, the Mendelssohn Club delivering a nice surprise May 7 with the premiere of Andrea Clearfield's The Golem Psalms in a year when other reputable organizations haven't done justice to new-music endeavors.
The golem of Jewish mythology is a man-made creature somewhere between Hal the Computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the monster in Mary Shelley's (as opposed to Boris Karloff's) Frankenstein. Clearfield's poet-librettist, Ellen Frankel, veered toward the latter, giving voice, feelings and perceptions to the golem. Writing for the red-blooded Mendelssohn Club choral sound, Clearfield used language that evoked Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with a strong backbeat and lots of techniques that suggested a world out of joint, of laws of nature being violated, such as out-of-left-field muted trumpets, clashing tonalities, and frenetic rhythms reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann. The mixture was consistently convincing and hugely effective.
What makes the work a Clearfield triumph is the evolution of strengths that have percolated for years in the music of this local composer - her way of elucidating text meaning in deeply vivid ways, but in The Golem Psalms doing so within well-weighted, singable phrases that reflect mastery with large choral and instrumental forces. The performance itself had fine diction from the chorus, plus a tidy contribution from guest baritone Sanford Sylvan, characterizing the often bewildered, semi-human golem".
- David Patrick Stearns
The Horn Call, May, 2006
CEROS, 2L Label, Froydis Ree Wekre, Lisa Ford (Horns), Andrea Clearfield (Piano)
Into the Falcon’s Eye was commissioned by Froydis and was premiered at the Sarasota Music Festival in 2003. It is for two horns and piano. The horn parts and the piano are skillfully intertwined. This is a trio, not a duet with accompaniment. Pitch bending and stopped horn are used very effectively. I consider everything on this CD to be my favorite! That’s because all of the music is interesting and well written, superbly performed, and recorded with a clarity that makes the listener feel like a part of the ensemble. Bravi to Froydis and all of the performers on this recording.
-CS
All About Jazz,
February 5, 2006
"Mozart: Reloaded": A Jazz and Classical Multimedia "Salon"
Mozart: Reloaded, Kimmel Center, Perelman Theater, Philadelphia, PA - January 27, 2006
January 27th, 2006 is the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth, and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia has dedicated a series of concerts to the great classical composer. Of these, “Mozart: Reloaded” was, to say the least, the most unusual. It incorporated elements of classical music, jazz, dance, electronic music, film, and- believe it or not, a large steel drum band- in a set of performances that honored the composer yet with each taking its own creative direction.
Andrea Clearfield is a composer and scholar who for two decades has held a series of “Salons” in her home which hark back to the nineteenth century events hosted by patrons of the arts in Paris that included musical performances, art exhibitions, readings, and discussions. From the ferment of the many innovative performances that have taken place in her living room, she drew on musicians with an experimental bent to “push the envelope” using sources in Mozart’s music. The result was a most lively, energetic, mind-expanding, and at times delightfully humorous evening that kept the overflow audience wide awake and at times thrilled.… Andrea Clearfield is to be thanked for daring, in the words of T. S. Eliot’s J.Alfred Prufrock, to “disturb the universe.” May the universe of music be subject to more such perturbations, for that is the only way that jazz and other musical forms can grow, change, and coming.
- Victor L. Schermer
Read entire review with photos: allaboutjazz.com
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday, November 11, 2005
Modern songs, in the footsteps of Rorem
"The main question left standing after the Philadelphia Art Alliance's concert of contemporary song by young-ish local composers is why this hasn't happened before. The new guard - as represented Wednesday night by Andrea Clearfield, Jennifer Higdon and Robert Maggio - is guided by lyric impulses that have been encouraged directly or otherwise by Ned Rorem, the dean of art song and a member of the Curtis Institute of Music faculty.
"The Clearfield selections weren't songs but movements from her hybrid oratorios, The Long Bright (about cancer) and Women of Valor (contemporary female poets meditating on their Old Testament counterparts). So unlike art song, the vocal line exists as one of many expressive elements. And though site-specific to their larger contexts, the excerpts gained in musical stature when standing alone, perhaps because Clearfield's music is so concentrated as to benefit from more distant observation. "The Bridge" from The Long Bright is a masterfully calculated emotional arc from terror to acceptance. Excerpts from Clearfield's earlier Women of Valor...are woven through with exotic Semitic melodies and seized by a passionate need to communicate what's behind the words".
- David Patrick Stearns
CVNC (Classical Voice of North Carolina), June 2005
Keewee Opening Night
"Celebrating its fifth season, the floating Keowee Chamber Music Festival opened its first concert of the 2005 season in Asheville on June 17...Before intermission came Philadelphia-based Andrea Clearfield's "Three Songs after Poems by Pablo Neruda" (1997), narrated by Tito Amaya of El Salvador. This was as close as we got to contemporary music and easily provided the most artistic depth of the evening".
- Roger A. Cope
The Horn Player, Published by the British Horn Society - April, 2005
CEROS, 2L Label, Froydis Ree Wekre, Lisa Ford (Horns), Andrea Clearfield (Piano)
...Johan Kvandal's Salmetone in its clean simplicity seems like a transition into Andrea Clearfield's Into the Falcon's Eye for 2 horns and piano which is a work commissioned by Wekre, and for me, brands this CD as, "Save the Best for Last".
Two horns and piano could ring the alarm bells of double trouble for the ensemble, but this is a jewel. Clearfield's exploitation of the timbres and techniques - bends, glissandi, stopping and flutter lays the souls of the instruments bare, but far from revealing flaws it serves to re-enforce Wekre's description of the horn as, "My fantastic instrument."
- Adrienne Fox
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Classical Symphony Celebrates Masters of the Marimba
“...a thoroughly convincing piece: her Concertino for Marimba and String Orchestra premiered Sunday at the Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany by the Philadelphia Classical Symphony...The program showcased Philadelphia Orchestra percussionist Angela Zator Nelson -- this season's participant in the classical symphony's Composer Connections series, which pairs performers and composers to create new works. Both the Clearfield concertino and Jacques Hetu's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Strings, were about the kind of wide-spaced melodies and density of notes that these instruments produce so effortlessly....Hetu uses the sparking timbre of the vibraphone... Clearfield is more inventive but less easily explained. Often, strings and marimba develop hugely different ideas simultaneously, with marimba working in its mysterious lower register while strings produce a fantasy of sorts on a single note, the two entities interlocking rhythmically but at contrasting speeds. The technique isn't uncommon; the entrancing effect is. The final movement had a syncopated frenzy with the marimba in its extreme upper register, dispensing with good manners but not with wit.”
- David Patrick Stearns
Fanfare Magazine - November/December 2004
The Poetic Oboe - Andrea Gullickson (0b): Karen Enns (pn) - Crystal 727
"Unremembered Wings was commissioned by oboist Andrea Gullickson and premiered at the 2001 annual conference of the Double Reed Society. Unlike the other pieces on this CD, which tend to cast the piano in an accompanying or supporting role, Clearfield's work is a true chamber ensemble piece, with intricate interplay between the two instruments. This is a substantive and substantial work, one that is deserving, I think, of wider exposure."
- Jerry Dublins
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Philadelphia Fringe Festival '04
Review of Sometimes you can see your dreaming mind, a dance/music/poetry fusion by composer Andrea Clearfield and choreographer Manfred Fischbeck.
"Improvisation was in discrete sections, each exploring a certain texture or energy level, often with the individual musicians inhabiting their own, dreamy worlds with passing reference to one another. Pianist Clearfield was particularly effective: Her improvsation wasn't just about notes, but color and atmosphere."
- David Patrick Stearns
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, May 23, 2004
Arts and Entertainment Column: Classical Music Reinvents Its Relevance to Times
“Last month, Orchestra 2001 premiered the Andrea Clearfield cantata The Long Bright...Inspired by the scourge of breast cancer, the Clearfield cantata consciously addresses the outside world in a text-based piece that, heard now, mushrooms into a larger issue: grief for those who are cut down in, and even before, their prime. Format-wise, it joins a long line of works, such as Britten’s War Requiem and John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, that speak their impassioned messages in no uncertain terms...Clearfield composed one movement as rap music (sung by a girls’ chorus), its rhythmic aggressiveness suggesting the mercilessness of disease, and, in a larger sense, the mercilessness of fate. There’s also room for more original acts of compositional wizardry. Since Clearfield leads you to expect a fairly straight-forward harmonic language, mentions of “cancer” and “malignancy” are all the more penetrating when the harmonies around them unravel, cancerously, in all directions. Some say this is one of the best pieces written recently by a Philadelphia composer. I agree...”
- David Patrick Stearns
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Thursday, April 22, 2004
Philadelphia Composer's Cantata Honors a Philadelphia Benefactor
Morning Call - Allentown, PA, Thursday, January 22, 2004
"Women of Valor" was the most elaborate and imaginative new compositions I've heard in the Valley in a long time. Clearfield reached far and deep in her work, billed as an oratorio for orchestra, augmented with several dozen both familiar and exotic percussion, three voices - soprano and two mezzo-sopranos - and narrator, the composer herself..."
- Philip Metzger
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Artist Showcase An Unexpected Delight
"Into the Falcon's Eye", a world premiere by composer and longtime festival faculty member Andrea Clearfield, was scored for two horns and piano and performed here by Froydis Ree Wekre and Mary Bisson with Clearfield on piano. Although the title is taken from poetry by Manfred Fischbeck, the composer claims there is no programmatic intent to the work. However, as one hears the slow, almost imperceptible evolution of the primary theme -- which is heard in its entirety only at the end -- one can lend a programmatic perspective to the listening experience by observing from a distance, just as a falcon might, rising higher into the sky. Horns in the extreme low register in unison and ever-widening intervals create a rolling and undulating harmonic landscape only later punctuated by jagged ethnic rhythms.
Clearfield knows her territory and made most-effective use of the horns and their many and muted colors. Wekre, who commissioned the work and collaborated closely with Clearfield in its development, along with Bisson, capitalized on the score and created lofty, lyrical lines, as well as razor-edged slashes of sound in the high register for a most-engaging first performance. Hopefully off on a brilliant career, "Into the Falcon's Eye" will receive a second hearing this week at the International Women's Brass Conference in Illinois."
- Gayle Williams
New York Times, May 14, 2003
"After the intermission, Relache played Matthew Shipp's “Vortex Z'', a jazz score. Andrea Clearfield, the pianist, Douglas Mapp, the bassist, and Harvey Price, the percussionist, all brought the necessary rhythmic freedom and dynamic suppleness to their playing."
- Allan Koznin
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Monday, June 3, 2002
Review of Group Motion Dance Company
"A primitivist painting by Cypriot artist Yiorkos Skotinos, which inspired the piece, stayed a static presence projected behind them, while Andrea Clearfield's sonorous score for string quintet contributed a soulful atmosphere..."
- Miriam Seidel
The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, Thursday, November 8, 2001
"Andrea Clearfield's Double Play from 1999 put keyboard and percussion through a more seamless, no less taut, conversation...a vibrant work."
-Tim Smith
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Fall, 2000
THE WOMEN OF VALOR ORATORIO
"Sensational! Fantastic! reported our West Coast correspondent, Evelyn Kravetz, on the premiere of Women of Valor at UCLA on April 16, 2000. So it was with eagerness that I approached this East Coast premiere of vocal portions of the oratorio sung by Shannon Coulter, soprano, Karin Caspi, mezzo soprano, with accompaniment by Donnie Deacon, violin, Ed Nardi, percussion, Michael Sheadel, piano, and the composer narrating...I was unprepared for the sheer emotional impact of the piece...The richness of this reduced arrangement is impressive, but it pales in comparison with the full orchestration. The composer has applied for funding for an East Coast performance and recording, which I look forward to reviewing."
-Deborah Kravitz
Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, April 18, 2000
IN NEW WORK, JEWISH SYMPHONY CELEBRATES 'WOMEN OF VALOR'
"Women of Valor was the title of Philadelphia-based composer Andrea Clearfield's new three-movement oratorio, whose world premiere performance easily dominated the afternoon. The women in questions are heroines from biblical times, and by implication, Jewish women of today--and perhaps even more specifically, the women who labored to write and perform the music. Even the recurring five-note motto of the work was based on the syllables of its title. For all its boisterous Jewish dance rhythms, Romantic rhetorical climaxes and affirmations of tonality, the work's scoring is mostly clear and deft, not at all heavy, even glistening at times. The lavishly whirling dance of Miriam -- which was the encore at the concert's close -- was the chief crowd-pleaser, yet the most effective portion of the score was its haunting, mysterious opening."- Richard S. Ginell
Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, May 16, 2000
NEW MUSIC ABRIM WITH LOVELINESS
"...For Margaret Garwood, that meant a moist-eyed nod to Debussyon a text of e.e. cummings in if there are any heavens. Andrea Clearfield composed a sweet exoticism drawn from a text of Manfred Fischbeck in Awake at Dawn.... I loved both works. Clearfield's is the result of a commission from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Music Project.... Both works made the point quite clearly that, in music, it is possible to create lovely works while steering clear of cutting edge."
- Peter Dobrin
SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION PREVIEWS HANUKKAH
"Beverly High's Peters Auditorium echoed last night to orchestral sonorities, choral glee and Old Country rhythms, as Noreen Green conducted the L.A. Jewish Symphony in the first concert of their eighth season.
'Prayer' is both authentic and effective. Built on the cantillation of the biblical Hannah's prayer, it was premiered at the 2001 opening ceremonies of the JCC Maccabi games in Philadelphia to commemmorate the eleven Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The opening narration, a poem from the Reform Jewish funeral service, is read to a solo violinŐs chant, and followed by singing strings building that chant into a wordless soprano vocal, over which the Mourner's Kaddish is recited. Ariella Vaccarino has a rich high register, and indeed looked biblical as she intoned her solo. At conductor Noreen Green's request, there was no applause. Just a moment of silence."
- Rabbi Baruch Cohon
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Spring, 2000
Shannon Coulter Recital, St. Mark's Church, Oct. 23, 1999
"The highlight of the concert was the preview performance of "Ruth'sAria" from Andrea Clearfield's doctoral dissertation. The work, Women of Valor, is written for soprano, mezzo-soprano, narrator and orchestra and is to be premiered in Los Angeles in April, 2000. Based on poems by Marge Piercy, Ruth's pledge echoes through the ages in text and notes, expressing Ruth's longing shining through the singer's eyes and arms."
- Deborah Kravetz
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Fall, 1998
(Review of the CD, Music For Horn and Piano by Women Composers)
"While one might think that the players' abilities have been tasked enough in the preceding works, it is not until we come to Songs of the Wolf, by Philadelphia native Andrea Clearfield, that we get to hear just how impressivethey really are. This piece was commissioned by Ms. Carr's former instructor and horn legend Froydis Ree Wekre and premiered by her in 1994 at the International Horn Workshop in Kansas City, Missouri. This CD has given me my second opportunity to review this remarkable work, but like most great works, it is one which reveals more amd more with each subsequent hearing. The first of the two movements, Wolf Night, draws its inspiration from an unpublished poem by Manfred Fischbeck, which Ms. Carr has included in her liner notes and which increases understanding and enjoyment of the piece. While Ms. Clearfield has a thorough understanding of the capabilities, both technical and expressive, of the horn and piano and makes use of them, perhaps the most outstanding and memorable of them is her writing of a wolf's howl used several times throughout the movement. The second movement has as its inspiration a mythical story named La Loba from Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. The legend is of an old woman, living alone who, with patient determination assembles the full skeleton of a wolf. When it is complete, the animal is resurrected and, running away, becomes a laughing woman. Using the horn as her instrument to depict these characters allows the player to express the full range of emotions in a cohesive and convincing piece of music.This work indeed deserves a place among the standard horn and piano repertoire."
- Catherine Mayer
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Fall, 1998
"The program closed with the world premiere of Sax Trax by Andrea Clearfield. The piece opens with staccato bursts in bass under legato soprano phrases. A long motif turns up in tenor and bass, then the bass solos the phrase that repeats and lengthens. Then the soprano plays over ATB chords, before moving on to a staccato motif of descending scales. "
- DeborahKravetz
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Summer, 1998
"Andrea Clearfield's Songs of the Wolf is a masterpiece. It's one of those works that pushes the boundaries of what an instrument can do, without delving into kitsch or counting on shock value for recognition. Full of content, the music sends the horn soaring into the altissimo, and propels it with equal force into the subterranean haunts of the basso, letting the soloists remain captivating throughout. With a dark and complex programmatic story line which lures the imagination into the realm of myths, it is easy to see how the subject served as a wellspring of inspiration for the composer...this piece will be on every aspiring Hornist's audition list. They'll be a shoe-in for that coveted chair!"
- Charles Rutan
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Monday, June 22, 1998
"...On hand to hear her composition performed, Andrea Jane Clearfield introduced her "Spirit Island", originally composed for flute, cello and piano and here substituting the double bass for the cello. Inspiredby a canoe trip in the Canadian Rockies, Clearfield transposed her impressions into musical form. The dark ominous piano chords that open the first movement, "Variations on a Dream," hint at the forbidding mountain scenery. The bass begins the theme, the flute joins with alarmed riffs in warring harmony as the movement's turbulence, underscored by the rippling piano, reaches its conclusion -- the bass singing darkly while the piano tolls. The second movement, "Rowing," with its staccato piano and syncopated rhythms in flute and bass, reflect choppy waters in its spiky harmonies. As the bass slides down (denoting exhaustion?), a final burst of jumpy energy resolves the piece on a positive note. Carol Wincenc on the flute, Fred Bretschger on the bass and Joy Michele Cline at the piano were obviously delighted with the work and their performance of it, as was the composer herself. Affectionate kisses all around confirmed their joy."
- Florence Fisher
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Summer, 1998
"The world premiere of Andrea Clearfield's Only the Wind (1995, rev. 1998) is based on poems by Mother Macaria Corbett written when she lived at St. Michael's Skete, a wilderness retreat on Spruce Island, Alaska. In a place where the wind is unceasing, one comes to differentiate the voices of the wind, its effect on nature, and the metaphor for faith in the midst of turbulence. This journey of the spirit was performed by Melissa Perry, soprano, Angela Murakami, clarinet, and Molly Newton, piano. The opening passacaglia has a clarinet line mirrored by the piano, before the voice enters mimicking the wind tone, a "speechless" voice that also moans and groans where "words no longer need to be said." The scherzo section has rapid piano lines, with vocalise rushing and clarinet bird trill. The third section is most turbulent, storming the blasts that"boom and buffet" and roar. Tempo slows at "war is not waged" and becomes more reflective in the comparison of the monastic candle before Northern gales. The Russian Orthodox "Let God Arise" anthem is woven into a canon with clarinet and piano, returning to the wind theme and faith that should not fail."
- Deborah Kravetz
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Summer, 1998
"This was the first public performance of Reminiscence for English Horn and Piano (1997) by Andrea Clearfield, and was performed by George Corbett, English Horn, and Michael Sheadel, piano. The piece was commissioned by Corbett in memory of his grandmother Carrie Behr; Clearfield selected a C-B recurring motif and included hints of Behr's favorite song, "Close to You" by the Carpenters. The motif is part of a thematic phrase that moves between piano and horn; the piano then mirrors the theme and adds full accompaniment. This piece well demonstrates the range of the English horn in its solos before a lively piano interlude re-introduces the theme and closes the piece."
- Deborah Kravetz
The Horn Call, No. 28.2, February, 1998
(review of Crystal Records, CD 678, Songs of the Wolf)
"American composer Clearfield has created a full-length (thirteen minutes) programmatic piece describing a dark, brooding, at times foreboding look at the wolf and its environs. Both of its two movements are based on literary works. Moments of triumph and activity are audible as well. A fast-paced series of tableaus of differing nature highlights the aura of the piece. Stopping, muffling, and scooping are some of the aspects which add character to this unique work."
- John Dressler
Penn Sounds, (A Periodical Serving Pennsylvania Composers), Winter, 1998
(review of Crystal Records, CD678, Songs of the Wolf)
"The centerpiece of this next release, deservedly so, is Andrea Clearfield's Songs of the Wolf... Ms. Clearfield shows a keen understanding of the capabilities of the horn, even writing for effects unheard before by this reviewer. Ms. Clearfield musically portrays many moods connected with the idea of the wolf: nobility, playfulness, savagery of the hunt and loneliness of the hunted, even to the effect of baying at the moon. It is hoped that this is not the only work Ms. Clearfield will write for the horn..."
- Catherine Mayer
IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) Journal, Fall 1997
CUBE: A Salute to the IAWM, Smart Museum, University of Chicago, p. 31.
"...The concert concluded with Andrea Clearfield's Love Song, an almost abstract textual and music painting of the Patrick Kelly poem about urban love. It could not have been entrusted to better hands than those of Barbara Martin, soprano, Patricia Morehead, oboe, and Philip Morehead, piano, who performed this wonderfully witty and dramatic piece with virtuosity. The afternoon concert ended on a perfect note."
- A. J. Wester
Penn Sounds, Winter, 1998
(review of Philadelphia Composers Concert '97)
"Legacy (1997) by Andrea Clearfield has been performed previously in this series, but has been expanded by a fourth movement. Based on Hopi poems and artist Louise Clearfield's colorful landscapes, this piece reflects the colors of its visual inspiration. Performed by the composer with soprano Shannon Coulter and flutist Cynthia Folio, each movement has a distinct color. Opening with Wupatki, a low flute solo sets a plaintive mode for the text about old red stone; falling lines depict agedness, decay and time passing. In Black Mesa, the flute invokes ancient native melodies and instruments played at night, disrupted by the orange blast of dynamite. What is left? The flute and soprano repeat the opening phrase. Winter Sunset is gray,with whistling, trickling flute phrases against low bass piano notes; the notes become chords, rising with the wind and retreating into coldness and the whistling wind. The new Earth Meadow represents the sun and all its colors, the darting flute a dragonfly and birds twittering in the brightness."
- Deborah Kravitz
Penn Sounds, Fall, 1997
"The emergence of Clearfield at 37 as a major talent, literally swamped with commissions in recent months, is certainly a newsworthy event. The composer has spent a great portion of her time sponsoring her salon concerts for the past 10 years, giving dozens of other composers a chance to be heard. She richly merits her personal success."
- Harry Hewitt
Penn Sounds, Fall, 1997
"Andrea Clearfield, rising star composer...Legacy utilizes flute, soprano and piano through tonal color inspired by the paintings and three Lomatewama poems for a modern interpretation of the legacy of the Hopi and Anasazi people, and the legacy from mother to daughter."
- Deborah Kravitz
Penn Sounds, Summer, 1997
"It's a pleasure to see the greatly gifted, steadily developing Andrea Clearfield represented on the excellent Songs of the Wolf CD (Crystal Records CD 678), along with other well performed contemporary works. Andrea's two-part work is deeply romantic in the best contemporary sense of that term, highly idiomatic and expressive."
- Harry Hewitt
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 21, 1997
(review of the Sarasota Music Festival Artist Showcase, June 19, Holley Hall)
"...Aaron Copland's lovely Duo "to the memory of William Kincaid," performed with commitment and skill by pianist Andrea Clearfield and Carol Wincenc on flute..."
- Richard Storm
Women of Note Quarterly, May, 1997
(review of the CD Images: Music for Horn and Piano )
"...My personal favorite was the most recent (1994) and the least conventional: Andrea Clearfield's Songs of the Wolf, inspired by a Manfred Fischbeck poem and by Clara Pinkola Estes' best selling book Women Who Run with the Wolves. Clearfield, a young composer from Philadelphia, gives the horn an imaginative role in this piece, yet the special effects -- glissandi, falling off notes at the end -- while evoking animal noises, only serve the musical ends. The music moves, develops, and builds, remaining tuneful but not trite. Carr and Nishimura play this music with an understanding of the gestures that held me through the piece."
- Jean Rife
Horn Call Journal (Quartly Publication of the International Horn Society),
November 1996, Vol. 27, #1
(review of the CD Images: Music for Horn and Piano)
"Clearfield's work is probably the most intense work on this disc. Programmatic images of two poems regarding wolves and the terrain surrounding them are convincely "told" by Ms. Carr. Sections of wild abandon followed by subtle almost creeping motion is beautifully rendered. Artful glissandi and work in the high C and D register are most impressive. This piece demands control and pacing, as Ms. Carr effectively demonstrates at every turn..."
- John Dressler
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March, 1996
"The large crowd that jammed Fleisher Art memorial on Sunday afternoon to hear Voces Novae et Antiquae seemed to surprise even the concert's organizers. Extra seating had to be added to accomodate everyone who came to hear the premiere of Andrea Clearfield's On the Pulse of Morning. Set to a poem Maya Angelou wrote for President Clinton's inauguration, On the Pulse of Morning might be thought of as a secular oratorio. Scored for chorus, orchestra, soprano, baritone and narrator, the work comes up with an appropriate musical answer to Angelou's strength-drawing poetry. Hopeful and substantive, Clearfield layers an emotional story over Angelou's. The composer crafts some beautiful and strong melodies and is not afraid to repeat a good phrase. Orchestrations were carefully done so that the instrumentalists never overpowered text sung by soprano Deborah Kuprunas and baritone Thomas Baust...The orchestra was charged with many interludes and lovely instrumental solos..."
- Peter Dobrin
Penn Sounds, Spring, 1997
(review of Songs of the Wolf on the CD SONGS OF THE WOLF on Crystal CD678, broadcast on WFLN on February 17, 1997)
" Clearfield's Wolf Night from Songs of the Wolf for horn and piano was played on this program. Performed by Norwegian hornist Froydis Ree Wekre, who commissioned the piece, and accompanied by the composer, this piece opens with a dark, ominous motif. The piano and horn in counterpoint gradually crescendo to a high call that dwindles off to a whine. There are cold piano intervals alternating conversationally with the horn, before the piano breaks into a lively, dancing, minor passage, with the horn joining in singing. They return to the opening motif, but the horn is more angry, then becomes muted. After a series of rolling piano arpeggios, the dark motif returns and ends with high howls. Clearfield has clearly evoked the cold, mysterious north, as well as demonstrating her close affinity with nature. This is a skillfully subtle piece that gives the soloist plenty to do without carrying the wolf thing to extremes. Throughout, Clearfield's love of the piano and her performance ability shine through."
- Deborah R. Kravetz
Penn Sounds, Spring, 1997
"Three Songs for Oboe and Double Bass after Poems by Pablo Neruda by Andrea Clearfield... Clearfield takes advantage of the sinuosity of the oboe inspired by the sendual nature of Neruda's poems....The bass serves as a solid grounding, setting out motif and rhythm, and taking advantage of the wide tonal range of the instrument, while the oboe is free to weave its spell. The third song is a lively dance, reminiscent of Renaissance lute rhythmic music, without conceding its modernity. The piece was performed by Rob Kesselman of the Philadelphia Orchestra on bass, and Jennifer Kuhns on oboe."
- Deborah R. Kravetz
Horn Call Journal, November 1994
(review of the International Horn Symposium, May 1994, Kansas City, Mo.)
"I don't think I can imagine Froydis Ree Wekre presenting a recital without a world premiere, and I was certainly not disappoined by Songs Of The Wolf by Andrea Clearfield, a beautiful and intense new work on Froydis's program of compositions inspired by the wonders of the woods."
Penn Sounds, Spring, 1993
"... When a young composer receives rave reviews from several critics, as has happened with Andrea (Clearfield), listeners can be reasonably assured that this is an exceptional talent. As one reviewer remarked, Andrea's pieces are 'filled with good ideas', but unlike most youthful work, these ideas are firmly controlled by good editing and unusually well-seasoned craftsmanship...(regarding the Redstone String Quartet); a major work highly sophisticated in construction...while technically it evolves from some aspects of twelve-tone writing, these elements are used with remarkable freshness of invention...impressive... The second half of the program featured Ms. Clearfield's Winter Universe. Here she turned with astonishing professional ease into the folk and rock idioms, writing an extensive song cycle... this was as clear-headed, memorable and insightful in its own way as was the Quartet... deeply moving..."
- Harry Hewitt
Philadelphia City Paper, March 5, 1993
"Andrea Clearfield's Redstone String Quartet is a four-movement work fashioned upon a straight forward but charming turn of the century waltz melody. Three of the musical sections are prededed by short voice-over texts by Christa Wolf, Manfred Fischbeck and Rilke....Peeking through a veil of violin ostinatos, presented ritornello-style, accelerated and played with shifted accents, the Redstone Waltz melody was treated almost improvisationally rather than being conventionally developed. The sensitive playing by Yuko Naito, Sarah Kreston, Jennifer Stahl and Kristin Ostling kept the stringtone at the emotional center of the work... contemporary classical music that combines traditional instrumentation and dance is rare, and Clearfieldand her collaborators should be applauded for putting classical composition in new contexts."
- Bing Mark
Penn Sounds , Winter, 1993
"A near perfect setting of Nes Gadol Hayah Sham by Andrea Clearfield to a near perfect text by Daniel Keiner followed. The greatly gifted Ms. Clearfield is also the choir's excellent accompanist."
- Harry Hewitt
Penn Sounds, Winter, 1993
"...Redstone String Quartet by Andrea Clearfield is a composition with an intense development and evolution..."
- Eleanor Sigal
Penn Sounds, Winter, 1992
"The second of the Crissey Concerts held at the Settlement Music School on Sunday, October 27, began with a strong piece by Andrea Clearfield. The text by Doris Ferleger, Red Clay (1991), was set for soprano, oboe and piano in an advanced impressionistic style, and received a dramatic performance."
Penn Sounds, Spring 1991
"Andrea Clearfield and Samuel Heifetz, both composer/performers of exceptional talents, dominated the rest of the program...with a delightful interpretation of Ms. Clearfield's, Under the Sleeping Tree (1990). This beautifully made cycle began with bells softly played off-stage. Adroitly scored, well constructed, this music journeyed far in the space of six or seven minutes and tellingly made its points all along the way. The composer, in her early thirties, is already writing with a degree of maturity that one would expect of a fifty year old veteran. She is indeed a youthful master of her art, who cannot fail to become recognized among the major talents of her generation."
- Harry Hewitt
Welcomat (Philadelphia), December, 1991
(review of Group Motion Dance Company's No Place No Where)
"A duet by Asimina Chremos and Joseph McClintock expressed well the formal despair of the words, as did the string quartet composed for this piece by Andrea Clearfield."
- Alexandra Grilikhes
The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia), December, 1990
"From the 11 composers on an Oct. 18 program called "Philadelphia '90"... a Debussyan " Sea Triology " for soprano with two flutes by Andrea Clearfield seemed the most compelling."
Penn Sounds, Winter, 1990
"Andrea Clearfield's Sea Trilogy (1989) was an excellent work, very interesting and full of good ideas. It is written for soprano. two flutes and piano, and April Woodhall's voice stood out properly from the accompaniment."
- Paul Stouffer
Andrea Clearfield |