Reviews:
Ethan Frome, Opera
in Two Acts (Television Production, 1998)
"
Bravo! to everyone with the stunning production of John Beall's
moving opera, Ethan Frome...The totality is simple and direct,
yet lavish and opulent – accessible yet challenging. I
cannot imagine anyone watching or listening to this opera not
being moved by the beauty of John Beall's creation and the splendid
production accorded it."
– Thomas Conlin, Music Director, WV Symphony
Orchestra
"
The opera Ethan Frome is a significant contribution to the world of twentieth
century American opera."
– Paul Balshaw, Dean Emeritus, Marshall
University
White Water
"The piece de resistance is the opener, Whitewater, a masterpiece performed
by
the Laureate Woodwind Quintet and the West Virginia University String Quartet."
– CDNow
On Chestnut Ridge (CD)
" John Beall, composer-in-residence at West Virginia University, uses the
Appalachian folk music he hears around him to create an American aesthetic. It
is a terrific
idea and often yields pleasing results...Whether wearing a European suit or countryboy
jeans, John Beall is worth discovering."
– American Record Guide, November-December,
1998
Summer Pieces
" Wolf of Summer was hauntingly nostalgic, incorporating zither-like effects
on the strings (the only extended-technique moment of the evening), hypnotic
repetition
of notes, and even a half-remembered reminiscence of a Chopin melodic fragment,
surely a moment worthy of Charles Ives."
– New York Concert Review
Sonata for Piano
“
The piano, program demonstrates the international side of Beall’s sensibility.
His 1994 Sonata opens with a graceful serial melody, sounding a bit like Berg,
explodes into a dizzying scherzo and concludes with charming variations on a
French folk tune. One of these is a swingy rag that betrays for a moment Beall’s
American origins. In the middle is a somber, neo-impressionist interlude in a
style that also permeates Three Summer Pieces.”
–American Record Guide, November-December,
1998
(Final mvt: Variations on L’homme armé)
“…
ended with three American works. The first, by John Beall, was the UK premiere
of Variations on L’homme armé which stood head and shoulders above
all the other music on the programme. Here is a composer who knows how to write
music.”
–Musical Opinion,Robert Matthew-Walker
Quartet for Piano
and Strings
The final piece in the concert was the "Quartet for Piano, Violin, and
Violoncello" by John Beall, but before going into that piece I need to
make a digression: My intention, with this series of reports, was to raise
and maintain interest in the national and regional conferences first, by providing
factual accounts and second, by augmenting those accounts with a limited amount
of interpretation and evaluation. …That having been said, John Beall's
piece was, for me, the best of the conference. Perhaps he had an easier time
of it, using a more traditional syntax. Still, I found the piece completely
engaging. Conference fatigue had already set in, but I perked up for this one.
The music evolved logically and seemingly naturally but without being predictable.
In fact, he took some risks. More than once I wondered, what he was going to
do with certain material (like the funny little galloping fragment that appeared
in the slow second movement)? It also didn't hurt that the piece was incredibly
well performed. The ensemble was the West Virginia Piano Quartet, James Miltenberger,
piano, Laura Kobayashi, violin, Philip Tietze, viola, and William Skidmore,
cello. If I had to find fault I'd wish for a bit more assertiveness from the
violin. Still, the ensemble work was absolutely first rate. Bravo, West Virginia
Piano Quartet, and bravo, John Beall!
–Society of Composers, ,Inc. Convention Journal,
2002
Gerald Warfield, Executive Director
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