Reviews

REVIEW EXCERPTS

Selected from sections of the press reviews dealing with the works presented in the Music Page of this website. Other aspects of the concerts, including performance have been deleted in order to focus on the works themselves.

I. VOICE AND ORCHESTRA

1 – "I Have a Dream" symphonic cantata. Esther Hinds, soprano, University of Maryland Chorus conducted by Paul Traver, FMMC Orchestra conducted by Robert Gerle. Kennedy Center Premiere. Commissioned by the Washington Performing Arts Society, Patrick Hayes, Director Emeritus the National Endowment for the Arts, the Meyer Foundation, the Kipplinger Foundation, and the Dreyfus Foundation for the Centennial of the FMMC of Washington.

The Washington Times, Octavio Roca 5/18/87

“BURTON HAS TRIUMPH WITH ‘I HAVE A DREAM”’

“By the end many were crying, and the standing ovation was long.

“’I Have a Dream,’ Stephen Douglas Burton’s monumental cantata based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal speech, received its world premiere yesterday afternoon at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. It was a triumph.

“Mr. King’s speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in August, 1963, is a difficult challenge for a musician. The text is already drenched in natural rhythms which defy musical setting. Mr. Burton’s music is never content merely to reflect the words. It comments as well. The results were immensely satisfying. Not since George Gershwin has an American composer so unabashedly, joyously embraced the sounds and spirit of his native land.

“…’we have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the urgency of now.’ And, from that point, the urgency never left the music.

“…Again and again, the massive musical forces seemed on the verge of brutality, restrained only by the words and brilliantly reflecting Mr. King’s speech.”

“Soprano Esther Hinds then entered soaring on the phrase ‘I Have a Dream…’ her melody simple and heart-breaking. The mood became more and more agitated until the proclamation of ‘Free at Last’ reflected musically in surprising transformations of the famous spiritual leading to a frenzy of freedom at the climax.

“In this way Mr. Burton managed to juxtapose two main ideas of the speech: the glorious affirmation of ‘Free at Last’ and the desperate wish of ‘I Have a Dream.’ …Imposing orchestral textures parted like the Red Sea to reveal the road to freedom in the voice of the soprano. The synthesis, musically as well as intellectually, was found in the phrase ‘let freedom ring.’

“The rhetoric of the speech was reflected in the logic of the score, and the message of brotherhood was powerful indeed. The realist and the idealist were as one in this music; serene melodies lived side by side with violent choral explosions, the joy of jazz and the sadness of the blues were all transformed by an irresistible and distinctive musical voice.

“On first hearing, this seemed a major new work, unmistakably American yet universal in its appeal. Stephen Douglas Burton’s ‘I Have a Dream’ will doubtless move audiences many more times, but it is hard to imagine a more committed and emotional performance than this Kennedy Center premiere.”

2 - "Ariel" Symphony No. 2 a vocal symphony on poems by Sylvia Plath commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the American Bicentennial. Stephen Dickson, baritone, Antal Dorati, conductor. Recording: Christopher Keene conductor, Syracuse Symphony.

The Washington Star, Irving Lowens

“Last night’s National Symphony subscription concert at the Kennedy Center was completely dominated by the world premiere of Stephen Burton’s Second Symphony, subtitled “Ariel,” one of the orchestra’s bicentennial commissions.

“This gigantic work for baritone and orchestra by a phenomenally gifted composer, still in his early 30’s, proved to be both eloquent and powerful. Young Burton, who now teaches at George Mason University, tries desperately to communicate his dreams and ideas much as did Gustav Mahler. Indeed, he has created a Mahleresque symphony, but the words which inspired it were those of the ill-fated poetess Sylvia Plath.

“The five movements of Burton’s ‘Ariel’ Symphony evoke what the composer calls ‘a text with the urgency and anguish of the 20^th century but with the capacity for great beauty as in the humanistic heritage of the 19^th century.”

“Here is a contemporary composition which attempts to scale the Mount Everest of human emotions, and to a large extent succeeds. Burton’s ‘Ariel’ Symphony probably will receive many hearings in the future - surely it ranks as the most impressive Bicentennial commission performed thus far.

“The audience reaction to the ‘Ariel’ Symphony was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and justifiably so.

“The program is repeated tonight. Don’t miss the Burton - you may lose a chance to be in on the first flowering of a major American composer.”

The Washington Post, Joseph McLellan

“Unless I am sadly mistaken, Stephen Douglas Burton’s Symphony No. 2 (‘Ariel’), which was given its world premiere by the National Symphony Orchestra Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, will be getting a lot of performances from American orchestras in the next few seasons.

“It will receive such attention not only because it is a powerful and brilliant work but also because its text is a selection of seven poems by Sylvia Plath, one of the few really significant poets who have found a large audience in our time.

“It offers, in short, an unbeatable combination of quality and trendiness.

“Burton’s choice of texts represents not only a fine sense of literary quality but also a calculated risk; the poetry is so overwhelming at times that it could easily overshadow the music. That it does not - that the two blend superbly and that the strength of the poetry has been incorporated into the music’s structure - is a testimony to the composer’s skill.

“Under Antal Dorati’s baton, the music displayed an awesome, almost a frightening mastery of orchestral textures, a command of idioms that range from the popular to the avant-garde, of moods that tend toward the somber, the angry, the frustrated but also include a calm of resignation if not of satisfaction, and hints of paradoxical optimism in the hushed contemplation of death. Most remarkable of all, the work’s Mahlerian size and complexity comes across in a style accessible even to the more conservative members of the audience.”

New York Daily News, Barton Wimble

“As a composer, Burton knows no fear. The work, in five movements, reaches for the essence of the universe - death and life, in that order - and manages to tear away an impressive piece of it in the 45 minutes playing time. …The final section, ‘The Moon and the Yew Tree,’ comes close to being a masterpiece in itself. It is hard to think of another contemporary piece that paints the landscape of mental disintegration so powerfully. The section itself could easily be a major work. In any case, it is an awesome attempt and a resounding triumph.

“Critics and historians do not make composers. Audiences do, and Mr. Burton certainly has a large and waiting one.”

SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCES

- Carnegie Hall, New York City, April 10, 1978, Christopher Keene & the Syracuse Symphony, Stephen Dickson, Baritone, Diane Curry, mezzo-soprano

Cue, Robert Jones,

“Keene picked Barber, Burton, and Janacek to introduce his people to New York - but it was Stephen Douglas Burton’s gargantuan Symphony No. 2 (“Ariel”) that aroused interest...

“Burton’s symphony turned out to be a five-movement group of songs…set to some deeply moving poetry by the late Sylvia Plath. Burton has heard all the music there is and uses most of it in his work, though stamped with his own personality. He gives his singers interesting, though far from easy things to sing, and he knows his orchestra inside out. The general effect is red-hot romanticism…Practically all of “Ariel” is interesting and a lot of it is downright gripping. The Carnegie crowd seemed bowled over and obviously would have liked another crack at it. Somebody ought to give them the chance.”

3 – "Songs of the Tulpehocken" Symphony No. 3 for tenor and orchestra in 7 movements based on anonymous Pennsylvania German texts Commissioned by Kenneth Riegel and the people of Berks County, Pennsylvania. Premiered by Kenneth Riegel and the Reading Symphony Orchestra, Stephen Douglas Burton conducting February 22, 1976.

The Reading Times, William East

“Pulsating vitality. …Burton and the orchestra seemed to reflect a sense of mutual respect and the players followed his lead beautifully. ‘A New Beginning’ was filled with glorious climaxes. …The orchestra reached the pinnacle of its 64 years in the 53-minute major bicentennial work. The assembly gave Riegel and the brilliant, 33-year old composer-conductor Stephen Douglas Burton a deserved standing ovation and the theater resounded with ‘bravo.’”

The Reading Times, William East 2/9/76

“It was a thrilling experience, to say the least, for this writer and the few other persons who were privileged to witness on Sunday the first play-through by any orchestra, anywhere, of Stephen Burton’s ‘Songs of the Tulpehocken.’

“Mr. Burton, conducting the Reading Symphony Orchestra…displayed his genius as he made instantaneous changes in the orchestration, coming up with the perfect corrections.

“The music of this symphonic song cycle has been developed around selected authentic Pennsylvania German poems and is the result of Berk’s County’s Metropolitan Opera tenor Kenneth Riegel’s desire to have the story of the Pennsylvania ‘Dutch’ told in classical music form.

“What Mr. Burton came up with is absolutely beautiful music.

“Mr. Riegel, himself, was overcome by the beauty of the music and embraced Mr. Burton at the end of the rehearsal.”

Subsequent performances in Brussels, Belgium and London, England.

The Soho Weekly News,Jamake Highwater, July 14, 1977

“Often moving, sometimes ingenious, and always interesting. …commissioned by Kenneth Riegel who finds in the massive demands and high-ranging excursions of Burton’s music a perfect vehicle for his interpretative skills. …Burton has composed music completely out of step with his times - but what the hell, it is often more interesting than much of the progressive stuff which is regularly unloaded upon our ears. …The Burton “Songs of the Tulpehocken” possesses conviction.”

New York Daily News, Barton Wimble, April 5, 1977

The Washingtonian, Dean Dalton, November, 1977

“Stephen Burton is one of the few really outstanding younger American composers. …Riegel is Pennsylvania German and he asked Burton to compose a song cycle on the traditional poetry of his ancestors. In reading the material, Burton was reminded of the “Knaben Wunderhorn” poems used by Mahler. The resulting cycle is, indeed, reminiscent of Mahler: large, emotional, and brilliantly orchestrated, it is full of a warm lyricism that is almost folk-like.

“Some years ago Burton forsook the cerebral preachments of his teachers and is now a self-proclaimed neo-romantic. He believes that the composer’s job is to please and move his audience. So, if you like the late romantics, I suspect you’ll be pleased and moved by “Songs of the Tulpehocken.” The composition is impressive, and the recording is excellent. Riegel sings the demanding part brilliantly, and Burton proves himself an able conductor.”

4 - "Ode to a Nightingale" (based on the poem by John Keats) Sylvia Brigham, soprano, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hans Werner Henze. Berliner Festwochen October 9, 1963.

Duesseldorfer Nachrichten, Alfons Neukirchen

“Hans Werner Henze appeared in a three-fold function at a concert of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra during the Festival Weeks; as composer, conductor and teacher. He made the greatest impression this time as a pedagogue. He presented Stephen Douglas Burton, a twenty-year-old American, whose setting of the ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ of John Keats, a work for high soprano, flute, harp, and string orchestra that captured the most highly critical and usually reserved Berlin public from the first note and finally left them fascinated. …The thrilling thing about his music is its originality, its spontaneity, its strongly compulsive conquering necessity. Burton elicits from the instruments with the subtlest colors of flute and harp a sound complex of aristocratic noblesse. One could call his music refined did it not contain this youthful urgency, this consuming pure ardor. Also, the string orchestra is treated in a way which one simply cannot learn; combinations of pizzicato and col legno with the normal string sound produce especially impressive excitement. One doesn’t for a minute question Burton’s method of composition; his music is youthful, new, modern, serial, what one will, but it is not doctrinaire; it compels us with its delicate laws. From the orchestra emerges the voice, which almost completely translates into sound the highest stratum of Keats’ powerful, intoxicating word-painting. More beautiful, more meaningful music from America we have not heard since Charles Ives.”

Die Welt, Berlin - Heinz Joachim

Der Tagesspiegel

Berliner Morganpost I, Rudolf Bauer

7-Uhr Blatt

II. MUSICAL THEATER

5 - “THE DUCHESS OF MALFI” Opera in 3 Acts with libretto by Christopher Keene, based on the play by John Webster. Commissioned by the National Opera Institute (later the National Musical Theater Institute) written 1975 to 1978. Premiere: August 18, 1978 at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, Vienna, Virginia, Christopher Keene conducting.

National Public Radio, Voices in the Wind

Gian Carlo Menotti

CBS News, Steve Baffrey, The Critic’s Choice:

“The country’s first National Park for the Performing Arts presented a sumptuously successful opera world premiere here this weekend outside Washington, D. C. …a gloriously romantic, excitingly dramatic, and visually stunning production which should inspire follow-on versions in many of the world’s major houses.

“…The Wolf Trap production succeeds wonderfully in every possible way - including a rich and rewarding score. …It has compelling impact at every turn and earns the ultimate compliment for any new composition on a first hearing - it sounds eminently “right” for an opera, and it begs to be heard again. …It was a charmed production in every way….

“Some of my colleagues believe it is axiomatic that a new opera can never be appreciated at its first hearing. In the case of Stephen Burton’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi,’ that is pure poppycock. If you were to express its success in commercial theater terms, it’s a hit, and a big one at that!”

El Sol de Mexico,Alfredo Henares August 24, 1978 translated: Carlos Pargas

“WORLD PREMIERE OF ‘THE DUCHESS OF MALFI’

RESOUNDING SUCCESS”

“…Subsequent to the night of the premiere, the critics, who rarely concur regarding anything in particular, overwhelmingly praised each of the elements of the work in question. Nothing was out of place. …Though Burton’s opera possesses elements of its predecessors, it has a personal distinction which identifies it totally as a masterpiece in its own right. “The Duchess of Malfi” is certain to enter immediately into the repertoire of the most important opera houses in the world.

“(it),,,overpowered the spectators and held them spellbound. The audience responded with clamorous applause and shouts of ‘bravo.’”

The Washington Post, Joseph McLellan August 19, 1978

“Like it or deplore it, the first performance of Stephen Douglas Burton’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ last night at Wolf Trap was hardly a routine operatic world premiere. The cautious or the cynical might see the dead hand of a discredited style reaching out of the 19^th century and clutching modern music in its spasmodic grip. For the Scholarly, it might seem the latest and most extreme example of the phenomenon we are beginning to call neoromanticism.

“But to those, including this reviewer, who surrendered to its powerful rhetoric and yielded the necessary suspension of disbelief, it was the birth of a masterpiece.

Performing Arts Magazine, Steve Baffrey November, 1978 (An expansion on CBS News, The Critic’s Choice above)

“It is a rare experience to sit front and center at the world premiere of a new opera, though I feel privileged to have done so seven times in my career. Never Before Wolf Trap, however, have I experienced such total involvement from the assembled audience, and never such a consummate thrill as a new creation was laid out before chillingly critical ears.

“It seems very safe to project that it will certainly be heard again, not just because it is new, but because it is very, very good.”

ARTPARK PRODUCTION OF “THE DUCHESS OF MALFI”

Buffalo Courier-Express, Thomas Putnam July 27, 1979

“The Duchess of Malfi’…was impressively staged with a strong cast at its Artpark opening…Composer Burton did the staging, which included smoothly flowing court sequences, and blade-sharp scenes involving the doomed protagonists.

“Burton’s “Duchess” makes good opera from compelling theater, using a musical language that is not so much conservative as it is inclusive of contemporary techniques.

“A lyric impulse is largely felt, and a demonic power always is ready to show itself from the lower brasses of the orchestra. Burton uses his musical imagination to suggest the maddened states of mind that are the engines of the tragedy - lust for power and heart’s lust. The post-romantic idiom is sharpened here; familiar tonalities are allowed, and in the love music…their modulations crawl persuasively…

“The opera drama has a cutting edge. It builds to a strangle-hold.”

Niagara Gazette, Bill Branch July 27, 1979

“ARTPARK’S DUCHESS IS A ROYAL TREAT”

“’The Duchess of Malfi’, the new opera at Artpark, is what opera should be – a grabber of a show…It is full of action and tension. It holds your attention and engages your emotions. You believe what is happening on the stage, and you want to know what will happen next.

“The composer, Stephen Douglas Burton, understands the function of an opera composer – to provide music that underscores and heightens the actions and emotions, that gives the audience musical cues and clues, that reaches to the guts of the audience and (sometimes) to its mind. “’The Duchess of Malfi’ is a ‘modern’ opera. But ‘modern’ in this case, is nothing for audiences to fear."

Buffalo Courier-Express, Richard Huntington, August 5, 1979

III. MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA

6 – "Fanfare for Peace" Commission of the International Committee for the Bicentennial of the Treaty of Paris (1783). Premiered at the U.S. Capital Mall by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolf, and later performed in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance on British American Day, and also performed at Grosvenor Square at the dedication of the "Diplomatic Gates, " a gift from the US to UK, and also played for the opening of the George Mason University Concert Hall in Virginia with Arnald Gabriel conducting the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.

Although I was not aware of any reviews, the following is an excerpt from a letter of May 30, 1984 to Mr. Burton from Joan R. Challinor, Chairman of the National Committee for the Bicentennial of the Treaty of Paris. (The committee also included Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, Kingman Brewster, Ellsworth Bunker, Henry Steele Commanger, W. Averell Harriman, Olga Hirschhorn, Elliot L. Richardson, Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, Sargent Shriver, George P. Schultz, Roger Stevens, and Senator John W. Warner among others.)

“You would have been thrilled to have heard your music performed by the Queen’s Artillery trumpeters. It was just beautiful, and it is impossible to imagine anything more perfectly appropriate than ‘Fanfare’ was.”

7 – Symphony No. 1 Rudolf Alberth and Berlin Radio, 1969 Alberth and French National Orchestra, 1971 Sir Georg Solti and Israel Philharmonic, 1971 Solti and Chicago Symphony.

BERLIN RADIO ORCHESTRA 1968

Der Welt, Joachim Matzner

Der Tagesspiegel, Wolfgang G. Burde

Der Abend

BWeser Kurier, Helmut Kotschenreuther

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

H. H. Stuckenschmidt

“Noteworthy how the symphony is reappearing in the younger generation. As Benjamin of the program the 25-year-old Stephen Douglas Burton closed the evening with a three-movement work. From his teacher, Hans Werner Henze, this Californian has learned stylistic freedom, to combine traditional sounds and the formal experience of the past with the means of the twentieth century. The most impressive was his delicate poetry in the second movement, a lyrical play of instruments, beginning with harps and muted trombones, structured with free variation-art, which also forms the basis of the fast finale.”

SUBSEQUENT PREMIERES:

1969 - French premiere: Rudolf Alberth and the ORTF (French National Orchestra)

1971 - Israel premiere: Sir Georg Solti and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

1971 - United States premiere: Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra April 1, 1971

Chicago Tribune, Thomas Willis

Chicago Daily News, Bernard Jacobson

“The evening opened with the United States premiere of the Symphony for large orchestra by Stephen Burton, a young Californian who has studied in Europe with Hans Werner Henze and now teaches at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. The short but striking symphony was written in 1965 when Burton was 22. It is an extraordinarily professional piece of work, full of crisp, precisely imagined sonorities, and laid out with an excellent feeling for the character of the various orchestral sections. …Burton is a real musician.”

8 - 1972 “Dithyramb” (Hymn to Dionysus) Commissioned by Antal Dorati and premiered by the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Dorati and National at Lincoln Center, 1974. 1975 Pittsburgh Symphony, Conductor: Donald Johannos. Chicago Symphony: Conductor: Christopher Keene.

The Washington Post, Paul Hume

“Everything combined to add to the brilliance of the opening evening. The program began with two world premieres, both of them large successes. From the 29-year-old Stephen Burton of this city, Dorati and the orchestra commissioned a festive work which Burton calls Dithyramb, a hymn of praise. It is a virtuoso essay that, in a brief time, explores and exploits in brilliant manner the largest resources of the orchestra. Its rhythms by turns drive forward, then relax in a remarkable procession of instrumental solos that proceed with no loss of tension. The performance Dorati and the musicians gave it must have made Burton both proud and immensely happy. He deserves both.”

CHICAGO PERFORMANCE:

Chicago Today, Roger Dettmer

“Completely new were Stephen Douglas Burton’s ‘Dithyramb’ for large orchestra, two years old and powerful. …by intent, Burton constantly flexed his rhythmic muscles in ‘Dithyramb,’ onward and upward from Respighi’s ‘Feste Romane,’ with an accretion of tension that would better have ended the concert than Ginastera’s pastiche.”

“Christopher Keene’s program paid homage to music of our time - with Burton’s work most gratefully discovered.”

The Chicago Tribune, Thomas Willis

PITTSBURGH PERFORMANCE:

The Pittsburgh Press, Carl Apone

“If Burton’s symphony lives up to the promise shown in this brief work, he will ring another bell for new music in the bicentennial.

“When Burton describes ‘Dithyramb’ he uses words like ‘violent… probing… nervous… intense… unrelenting.’ His music is all of that. There is something compelling about his design and craftsmanship. He brings strength and power to instrumental music.

“The thick and closely woven chords are sometimes wonderfully aglow. A melodic appeal is there and an imaginative use of instruments to achieve a mood of suspense and passion.

“I found the nervous energy, probing ideas and explosiveness attractive.”

IV. CHAMBER MUSIC

9 – “String Quartet Fantasy” Commissioned by National Symphony String Quartet at Corcoran Gallery and played on the Paganini Stradivarius instruments in numerous venues. Performed in 1978 on the National Symphony Chamber Series.

The Washington Star-News, Wendell Margrave

“The new work on the program was the ‘Quartet Fantasy’ of Stephen Burton. …The piece is in two movements, an overture contrasting a jaggedly rhythmic motive with a lovely lyric melody, followed by a fantasia on the song, Wie sind die Tage Schwer, from ‘Six Songs of Hermann Hesse.’ It is a good piece, appealing at first hearing and with a wealth of melodic resource. …I am glad to see that he is writing for people rather than savants.”

SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCE OF STRING ORCHESTRA VERSION:

The Northern Virginia Chamber Orchestra under Cal Kellogg performed the arrangement for string orchestra in the early 1990’s.

10 – “Six Songs after Hermann Hesse” for soprano and thirteen instruments. Commissioned by and premiered at the National Gallery of Art, 31^st Annual American Music Festival. Based on the 1974 version for voice and piano. Voice: Louise Reade Burton, piano: Frank Conlon. Further performances: Voice: Ralph Williams, piano: Jeffrey Goldberg.

The Washington Star-News, Robert Evett

The Washington Post, Joseph McLellan

“In a program of songs by living Americans, it is moderately surprising to find a cycle entitled ‘Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Hermann Hesse.’ But there it was, last night at the National Gallery, a world premiere of a cycle by Stephen Burton which was surprising not only in the language used but in the quality of the music.

“Burton, born in 1943, was by 13 years the youngest of the six composers represented on the program, and if this work is a fair sample of what is being done by composers in their early 30’s, it sounds like we may be in for a wave of neo-romanticism. I think I am ready to welcome such a movement, particularly if it is managed with as much fine craftsmanship as Burton devoted to setting six poems by the author of ‘Siddhartha’ and ‘Steppenwolf.’”

11 – “Requiescat” for chamber choir on a poem by Matthew Arnold. James Madison High School Madison Madrigal Singers. Conductor: Robert Shafer.