# programme notes #

# reviews #

"I will not follow the common practice of describing what is now common knowledge -- how Crumb achieves his colorful sound effects. To do so would be to suggest that the music is of some intellectual interest, which it is not. It is designed to appeal to the senses, and it does this successfully. I would not presume to quarrel with Crumb's direct quotation from Chopin. But the impression I got was of a shallow piece, obvious and dull to the point of monotony but not banality."

Robert Evett, Washington Star-News, 15 August 1973

"Let those who would proclaim the demise of 'serious' music in this century confront Crumb and Burge -- even singularly, but best together ... Crumb has an affinity for exploration into sound that seems almost unrivaled by his peers ... In the Makrokosmos, performer and instrument are nearly one, acting out a huge drama whose 'plot' is so multifaceted that one cannot say what it is really all 'about' -- other than that it is metaphysical, even quasi-religious ... Whatever the structural formulations of the work -- and they are enormously complex -- for all of that, Crumb's infinitely imaginative music is so very accessible somehow, even if not in any conventional sense. Therein, perhaps, lies his value to us."