“With this latest disc Jeremy Beck shows, once again, that one can fashion convincing music from traditional ways and means that sounds alive and relevant. … It also shows his positive and tonal approach to composition, one that is happily devoid of arid technical or doctrinaire investigations.”
– Jonathan Woolf,
MusicWeb International (Jan 2021)
“Luminous, expressive, and refined are some of the words that come to mind as the album’s tonal pieces play, “by moonlight” deftly showing Beck cultivating an individual voice while operating within a tradition.”
– Textura (May 2020)
“The music disarms me as a listener by not calling attention to itself as an example of some new trend, some flavor-of-the-month fodder for some genre cannon. Instead it beguiles purely on its own terms … As nature becomes awakened in full spring as I write this I feel the music helps do justice to the glorious seasonal opening of buds. Most pleasurable a listen it is. Bravo Jeremy Beck.”
– Grego Applegate Edwards,
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music (May 2020)
“…American composer Jeremy Beck … seems to attach a distinctively individual compositional technique to each and every different instrument or group of instrumental or vocal forces he writes for. …[H]ighlights for me are the Echoes of a Young Poet’s Dream from Dream and Echoes, performed impeccably here by the vocal ensemble The First Readings Project. Its harmonically rich dissonances pull you into a dark fog that magically lifts once you hear the goosebump inducing final chord. Also admirable are his orchestration skills made apparent in the Three Pieces for Orchestra in which different threads manifest themselves simultaneously and request your attention.”
– Jean-Yves Duperron,
Classical Music Sentinel (March 2020)
“Rich rewards abound … [one of] today’s most thoughtful composers”
– George W. Harris,
Jazz Weekly (March 2020)
***
“by moonlight isn’t just a collection of works – it also provides a certain overview of my compositional life,” says Jeremy Beck.
Bringing together music of his present and past, this selection of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music opens a window into Beck’s sound world. From the celebratory Concertino for two cellos and strings to the pensive Serenade for orchestra, Beck’s musical language is direct and distinctly American. His music embraces a continuum of tonal compositional thought that organically embodies previous developments while moving forward in his own individual style.
Beck’s music has been called “… forceful and expressive. … concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic” (Gramophone, 2013), while the critic Joshua Kosman has noted that “…novelty isn’t the only thing music can provide, and the moody expressiveness of Beck’s writing is its own reward.” (SF Gate, 2013).
Through his music – by turns confident and vulnerable, outgoing and intimate – composer Jeremy Beck reaches out to the world, sharing his artistic vision of the beauty, struggle, and thoughtful wonder that reflects part of our human experience.
Works on this CD include:
Concertino for two cellos and string orchestra
Dream and Echoes for SATB a cappella
Prelude and Toccata for cello solo
Three Songs for tenor and piano
Adagio and Allegro for violin and two violas
Of summers past, or passing for clarinet and piano
Third Delphic Hymn for viola solo