From Fanfare, May-June 2008

Regarding the CityMusic Cleveland CD:

"But the real winner here, and the primary reason for buying this disc, is the superb offering by... Brouwer, one of our best composers, and certainly near the top.  This Violin Concerto, written specifically for this ensemble, is simply a marvel to hear, combining phenomenally difficult solo passages with some of the most ingratiating melodies I have heard in a recent composition...  For those of us who, years ago, were wondering where music might turn after the challenges of the atonalists, this is it.  She is not afraid of the modern idiom, and uses whatever techniques are called for a the moment, but at the same time never loses sense of that fundamental and essential musical ingredient called melody.  The work ends in a veritable Gypsy orgy, high spirits with just a degree of danger inhabiting the outskirts.  These last two movements make the opening, a dark and sometimes borderline melancholy, stand in great contrast, and deceptively set you up for wild changes in temperament that add to the frustration-elation cycle of the piece.  Michi Wiancko, concermistress of CityMusic Cleveland, plays as if possessed with an innate understanding of this music that lends itself to a completely convincing reading.   --Steven E. Ritter, Fanfare