# programme notes #

# reviews #

"Crumb's music is reflective, illustrative, and seldom active in itself as Beethoven's or Berlioz's is: in Star-Child one finds a vivid picturing but not the musical enactment of the 'struggle'. The composer invites listeners to share his poetic thoughts and visions, to enter a private world of marvels; his method is essentially intimate."

Andrew Porter, New Yorker, 23 May 1977

"When all hell broke loose -- during an evocation of the Apocalypse -- Supreme Maestro Pierre Boulez could be seen beating with the polyrhythmic fury of a sinner trying to drive off an army of snakes. So it went last week as the New York Philharmonic gave the world premiere of Star-Child, ... Gimmickry aside, Star-Child turned out to be a work of immense power, daring and, at times, even horror."

William Bender, Time Magazine, 16 May 1977

"Star-Child ... is sensitive, powerful, full of personality, and it marks a significant step in Mr. Crumb’s development ... This is big music and even passionate music. In a way, it is a synthesis both of what Mr. Crumb has been doing and of many contemporary techniques. Mr. Crumb has tied everything together, creating a score than transcends any derivations."