Reviews from Gävle Symfoniorkesters Friday, May 15th performance of "And all the trees of the field will clap their hands", Jaime Martin conducting.
Gefle Dagbladet, May 16 2015:
"Composer Matthew Peterson, born in the USA, active in Sweden, wanted to write music full of life and was inspired by a many-faceted text about nature and word from the Old Testament, Isaiah 55: 10-12. It worked so well that he won last year's Uppsala Composers competition. And yes, nature's awakening energies stream out of this attractively vibrating, somewhat minimalistic work.
It proved to be an airy, elusive construction of reflexes, powerful zigzag lines, undulating dynamics and flickering facets, atmospheric clouds of light that constantly change values, echoes, voices embracing each other and big, physically pounding rhythms."
http://www.gd.se/kultur/esther-yoo-lockade-fram-tarar
Arbetarbladet, May 16 2015:
"Matthew Peterson was inspired by the text of Isaiah 55: 10-12 ending "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands" and wrote a work that shimmers like the awakening of nature. Mountains singing and trees clapping their hands. Nature's echo. Tones that do not turn back until they reach their goal. Parts that correspond to each other. We had horns like an echo of the strings. Or vice versa. Behind everything, a vibrant, life-giving rhythm.
Here are echoes reminiscent of composers Glass and Reich, but only faintly.
Matthew Peterson's work received both the jury and audience award at Uppsala tonsättartävling last year. It was well deserved."
http://www.arbetarbladet.se/kultur/yoo-fick-nastan-taket-att-lyfta