Stanley Fefferman, Opus One Review (on Concerto for String Quartet)
“Derek Charke’s smeared lines and quivering textures have an immediate appeal...”
Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail (on Sepia Fragments)
“It’s really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos, I would say—and I think it’s a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too.”
David Harrington, Kronos Quartet (on Tundra Songs)
"The admirable simplicity of the concept kept the audience riveted on catching the tiniest details."
Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald (on Raga Cha)
Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
“A full house (almost) at Roy Thomson Hall—for a concert of New Music? Yes! And standing ovations that wouldn’t quit for the première of Derek Charke’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra? Too right! Charke’s music is eclectic, hectic and sometimes electric. The concerto’s finale is a post-climactic mix of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing mournfully, while out of the speaker system issue loud chords by Kronos String Quartet infused into a taped soundscape of eerie narwhal and ring seal vocalizations that is simply beautiful. It prepares a silence that is the hallmark of a fulfilled audience resting before an explosion of appreciation. Backing up from the concerto’s finale we find ourselves excited by a toe-tapping, percussive frenzy of rhythms driving in successive, serialist waves that rock the room like its back ain’t got no bone. And backing up towards the beginning we get broken bits of sound and silence that gather into oscillating melodies broken by guttural grunts, yells and cries by Kronos. Listening backwards or forwards, Charke’s music is about the freedom to be an individual, and the audience got it.” – Stanley Fefferman, Opus One Review
“This composition was a gem of musical genius, embodying a vast variety of diverse emotions and themes into a single piece. The final descent from celebration led into a darker and mysterious theme featuring the soundscape technique with distinct seal, whale and dolphin sounds. This immense sense of imagination and imagery concluded the piece, earning the performers and the composer a well-deserved standing ovation." – Daniel Frasca, Bachtrack.com
"With this concerto, Charke staked out a vast sound-world as his musical territory. His horizons are very broad – encompassing not just the fragmented syntax of Widmann or the subtle timbres of Eotvos, but also familiar modal harmonies, a steady, danceable beat and even a dash of Hollywood film-score glitz. As if that weren’t enough, there was also some shouting from the orchestra players, and prerecorded seals and narwhals from Nunavut." – Colin Eatock, The Globe and Mail
Symphony no. 1 – Transient Energies
“His ear for instrumental tone as well as the shimmering timbres of natural sounds of automobiles, wind turbines, flowing water, gurgling oil, shovelled coal and the clatter of trains over buzzing steel rails is amazingly acute and all-inclusive... Consistently and forcefully, Charke marshalled them into order, while maintaining firm artistic control of imagery, shape and playability... Moments of extraordinary tranquility, as in the mystical vision at the end of the hectic fourth movement, echoed through the Mahler-esque cello solo, played so expressively by principal cellist Norman Adams in the melancholy first movement.” – Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald
Falling from Cloudless Skies
“Derek Charke's “Falling From Cloudless Skies” was an enjoyable blend of electronics and orchestra. While the musicians played, Charke focused on his laptop, carefully executing more than 200 recorded sounds. The piece began with synthesized sounds and a mild pulse. Suddenly, it became chaotic as the audience was assaulted with full force chaos of the orchestra. There was a surprise when a recorded voice reported that a six-pound chunk of ice fell from the sky and that this and other extreme atmospheric events may be associated with climate change. The strings began undulating and the music took on a movie soundtrack quality. By the end of the piece, the orchestra sound had thinned out and the electronics had more prominently returned. It had an open feeling — perhaps the sky's relief after letting loose its ice chunks." – Chris Hay, The Manitoban
Sepia Fragments
“Derek Charke’s smeared lines and quivering textures have an immediate appeal...” – Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail
Tundra Songs
“It’s really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos, I would say—and I think it’s a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too,” “It’s fun to play; I think there’s kind of an elemental quality to the music, and to the collaboration. It feels really great, to me.” – David Harrington, Kronos Quartet
“I can really feel my home in the piece,” she adds. “He nailed it on the head.” – Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer
“Tundra Songs is a complex and ambitious piece of work, but the audience felt its impact on an emotional level and replied with an exuberant standing ovation” – Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight
"Charke's style is not far out. He has a command of likable post-Minimalist techniques. He creates grooves. He matches string textures, through devices such as circular bowing, with atmospheric sounds.... “Tundra Songs” is the 600-and-somethingth piece written for Kronos over more than three decades – and another keeper. " – Mark Swed, LA Times
“Tundra Songs was very effective in creating imagery in the mind of the listener. One could easily imagine the arctic tundra, open expanses, ice flow, and exotic wildlife. Although Tundra Songs was lengthy, there was never a dull moment it was the kind of sound that one would want to go on and on all night if it could.” – Johnathon Bakan, San Francisco Examiner
Raga Cha
"The admirable simplicity of the concept kept the audience riveted on catching the tiniest details." – Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald
Time’s Passing Breath
“...and the contemporary Canadian composer Derek Charke’s Time’s Passing Breath, a piece layering the dual guitars atop a prerecorded bed of crystalline bells, their rings electronically stretched and skewed nearly beyond recognition. If such a diverse, enticing sample is representative of their repertoire, it would be surprising indeed if any audience member left without wanting to hear what other musical surprises the brothers Katona have up their black sleeves." – Colin Marshal, Santa Barbara Independent
Cercle du Nord III
"The three-hour concert began with a few non-Indian works, including arrangements of short pieces by the Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros and an Ethiopian composer, Getatchew Mekurya, as well as "Cercle du Nord III," an inventive, rich-textured score for quartet and electronic sound by the Canadian composer Derek Charke." – Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
"Elsewhere on the program, Canadian composer Derek Charke's "Cercle du Nord III" wove Inuit throat-singing and barking sled dogs into a taped rhythm track that chugged along under toe-tapping minimalist writing for the quartet." – Joe Banno, Washington Post
"The quartet began the night with perhaps one of the strongest arrangements, Derek Charke's ‘Cercle du Nord III’.” – Matt Sedlar, The DCist
13 Inuit Throat Song Games
"Canadian composer Derek Charke's 13 Inuit Throat Song Games, composed originally for the Kronos Quartet and re-envisioned for this concert, consists of thirteen evocative slices of Inuit life. Its 13 sections, with suggestive titles like Dogs and Story of a Goose, each flow into the next as one organic entity. The barefooted Tagaq's throaty voice provided both counterpoint as well as rising above the strings like a howling wolf." – Holly Harris, Winnipeg Free Press
"...Charke's four Inuit Throat Singing Games (chosen from a longer compilation) was chiefly remarkable for the use of bowing techniques (circular bowing and a kind of scrubbing up and down), in imitation of the throaty, scratchy, in-breath and out-breath voicings of Inuit throat singers. ..." – Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald
What do the Birds Think?
"Among four newer pieces, only Derek Charke’s “What Do the Birds Think?” could be said to extend the modernist tradition. The work’s animated outer movements call for a catalog of unorthodox expressive techniques. In between, an onstage trio (alto flute with muted violin and cello) is juxtaposed with an offstage duo (bass clarinet and percussion). While physical separation was impossible here, the layered sounds still proved fascinating." – Steve Smith, The New York Times
"Structure is important to Derek Charke... Although his description of What Do the Birds Think? is almost impossibly complex, the results would be engaging no matter how they were created." – Bruce Hodges, Seen and Heard International Concert Review
Break-up
"More satisfying were Juliet Palmer's Starving Poetry for violin and marimba, whose structural clarity intensified the ache in its melancholy; Louis Andriessen's Dubbelspoor for harpsichord, piano, celesta and glockenspiel, which chimed patiently toward a grand melodic ending; and Derek Charke's Breakup, which came out of Charke's experience in the north. Charke wisely avoided the windswept cliches of northern soundscape and wrote about the dance in his heart in a well-formed work full of colour, drama and rhythmic vitality." – John Lehr, Toronto Star
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