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Press Quotes "Shrapnel in the Heart's complicated score was an absorbing experience - not just because of its poignant emotional message, but because of the way it is constructed...(It is) a highly effective work, full of purely musical as well as emotional interest." "Earthly Prayers is an important contribution to the music world. Hersh has always given us thoughtful music of great depth that is filled with drama and beauty. Earthly Prayers , in my opinion, is his finest composition and should be heard throughout the world."
"...the composer's self-described manic 'Leaps of Faith' [from Earthly Prayers ] is a triumph, a jumble of the whole of passionate religious feelings (including calm faith) into a single piece...Its conclusion holds a passage of real beauty."
"The hit of the evening was the American premier of a new work by Howard Hersh, called The Hundredth Monkey ...Fifteen minutes long, the work begins quietly but soon erupts in a flurry of drums, and from there everything goes...The percussionists begin to chant syllables rhythmically, and to slap sounds from their chests and thighs and faces, like Bobby McFerrin. The counterpoint is rich, the rhythms exciting...It's heady fun. The applause was enthusiastic, and Hersh was on hand to acknowledge it."
"Hersh's 'The Idea of North' was commissioned by the Yugoslav-born percussionist Nebojsa Zivkovic...It begins in a bustle at the bottom of the keyboard, but is soon flashing all over the place, with little flickering high notes chiming unexpectedly. It becomes richer and more beautiful as it goes along, and trails away in a parade of cadential phrases that cannot seem to bear the thought of ending."
"Sensuality, which never seems to go out of style, was a motivator [in Millennium Spring]... At one point, it seemed an invisible sun was gaining intensity, blazing to show all the colors of the flowers of the work's [namesake] season...."
Music review: 'Pony' runs tricky course beautifully By Patricia Beach Smith, Bee Arts Critic
Howard Hersh's "Pony" is a horse of a different color - one painted with many magical musical colors. A pony is the vague subject of one of the Nevada City composer's newest works, "The Pony Concerto." The piece was given its Sacramento debut Sunday in a program presented in the Music Recital Hall at California State University, Sacramento. (Its Davis premiere was Saturday.) It was performed at CSUS by the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, which commissioned the new Hersh work. The pony may be an imaginary equine, but musically he is as real as Seabiscuit. The concerto, in three distinct movements, successfully conveyed both pastoral and alarmingly urban sentiment. Scored for piano (Dmitriy Cogan), flute (Mathew Krejci), clarinet (Patricia Shands), violin (Kineko Okumura) and cello (Victoria Ehrlich), the work is a committed piece of music, one of which Hersh should be proud, as should the ensemble for its thrilling performance. The very approachable first movement - "Pony's Day Begins; Pony Dances and Dreams" - moved from tone clusters and twitters mimicking birds to gusty swooshes and fantastic clarinet, flute and piano passages. Rich with complex dance rhythms, the first movement also contained some of the piece's most elegant melodic elements - all elevated with huge crescendos and varied pacing. The second and third movements proved the most interesting because of their keen, strong, rhythmic and melodic elements. A definite nocturnal character was expressed early by a violin-and-piano duet in the seemingly benign second movement - "From His Starry Field, Pony Watches Bombs Fall." Later, the movement evolved into a noisy conflagration sparked by high-pitched peals from the flute and clarinet, and low, mean rumblings in the piano, all upheld by the vibrant ensemble. The second movement also launched into a charming, folksy section that became melancholy and moody at the end. The engaging third movement, "Pony Runs and Runs," never ran out of steam, racing at a fast clip perhaps a tad too long. The pony sped on mystical musical motifs across fields and dreams, morphing finally into Pegasus, or had he been that sky-bound creature all along?
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