Reviews
For more reviews, please refer to the individual pages of each work
"Ms. Brouwer has one of the most delicate ears and inventive imaginations among contemporary American composers. Compare her percussion concerto, "Aurolucent Circles," to another recent one by Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, "Rituals." Ms. Brouwer not only gets more seductive sounds out of the instruments, she also creates a dramatic through line that keeps the attention riveted for 27 minutes. The music is laid out spatially, so that phrases and motifs jump or flow across the soundstage..." - Lawson Taitte, The Dallas Morning News
"Composer Margaret Brouwer is that rarity, a contemporary composer whose music is accessible and engaging for a wide range of audiences, but whose work doesn't sound like movie music. She's not afraid to be spiky when spikiness is indicted, but there's never a sense in any of these works that she's using atonality for its own sake. And often her sonic world is utterly luminous in its beauty." - Sarah Bryan Miller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"For those of us who, years ago, were wondering where music might turn after the challenges of the atonalists, this is it. [Brouwer] is not afraid of the modern idiom, and uses whatever techniques are called for at the moment, but at the same time never loses sense of that fundamental and essential musical ingredient called melody." --Steven E. Ritter, Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
"(Brouwer) has a talent for taking the simplest melody and through her expansive array of compositional techniques, develop it into a polished musical gem. And even when employing a twelve-tone row, Brouwer never ventures into the realm of compositional gimmickry. Every note she writes has musical purpose." - Mike Telin, ClevelandClassical
"Brouwer finds a keen balance between contemporary and tonal language." - Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Brouwer’s music is nothing if not eclectic…with its piquant combination of dissonance, extended technique…and long-limbed, expansive melody that soars above its often complex setting… including unabashed tonality and emotional expressiveness.” - Mark Satola, The Plain Dealer
"Brouwer has a gift for both lyricism and humor." - Moore, The American Record Guide
“The title of this arresting new disc…is an elegant double entendre. It refers both to the crisp, crystalline instrumental textures she (Brouwer) favors and to the vein of emotional intensity that courses through the music…What’s most striking about these pieces…is how deftly Brouwer blends these two strains. The music switches from a cool neo-Classical demeanor, all buoyant rhythms and sleek textures, to howls of Expressionist anguish—and then back again without a hitch. The emotional vividness of the result is remarkable, and the performances by the Blue Streak Ensemble and the Maia String Quartet with clarinetist Daniel Silver only underscore Brouwer’s versatility. The disc winds up with “Lonely Lake,” a gorgeous and carefree summer camp pastoral full of birdsong and the evocation of landscape.” - San Francisco Chronicle
"Brouwer's music does have a sense of stylistic independence and an openness of spirit that must be very hard won, given the pressures at work in the US during the era when she learned her craft. The melodies are memorable; the instrumental writing is unique, sharp, and always expressive...Brouwer combines classical order and determination in her work, but also loves to make candy for a discerning ear. The result is not detachment, but a kind of energetic hopefulness, suggesting a strong emotional core we've yet to hear rise to the music's surface." - Paul Ingram, Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
"...a compositional voice refreshingly detached from schools and trends." - Julian Cowley, The Wire
"Music's power to unite is one of the key messages in Margaret Brouwer's "Daniel and Snakeman," a disarming piece for listeners of all ages...Brouwer's score pays tribute to Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" in assigning instruments and themes to each character. And like the Russian composer's popular piece, "Daniel" abounds in charming tunes that help catapult Brouwer's story about the eponymous hero who faces nasty, intolerant Snakeman and releases the villain's underground population of people of many cultures." -Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland: The Plain Dealer
“Ms. Brouwer’s charismatic text and compositional ingenuity weaves a picturesque tapestry of sounds into our minds and emotions” – J.D. Goddard, ClevelandClassical (reviewing Daniel and Snakeman)
"Margaret Brouwer's music was very rich and satisfying…all had excellent craft and every gesture was audible." - Mark Greenfest, SoundWordSight
"The most haunting aspect of Brouwer's "Diary of an Alien" comes in the final movement, in which the solo flute's lines are echoed electronically to evoke bells. Every moment in this serene work reveals the gifts of a composer whose music blends superb craftsmanship with a poetic sensibility." - Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer
"She has written skillfully and imaginatively for both viola and orchestra, and the music engages start to finish" (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) -Scott Cantrell, The Dallas Morning News
"In terms of sheer enjoyment, Margaret Brouwer's "Crosswinds" towered over everything else on the program. The piece is a nostalgic evocation of country landscapes and sounds, replete with open hearted gestures, poetic sighs a la Mahler and hoe-down activity taking Copland to frisky extremes. The score's energy and tenderness were embraced to rapturous degree by the Cavani String Quartet..." - Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer