CD Reviews
across the veiled distances. Music by Hope Lee. Centre- discs, 2019.
“A select collection of piano music spanning nearly four decades (1979-2017), Across the Veiled Distances (Centredisques 27219) gives to us some five thoughtful and very pianistic works by Hope Lee, who deserves our attention as an accomplished voice on the New Music scene. A sensitivity to touch and timbre marks the music out,…..The clearly sensuous facticity of part articulation is given palpable creative thrust in the readings here by excellent exponent Yumiko Meguri, a pianist of decidedly high caliber with great sympathy to Hope Lee's poetics of piano gesture……The solo piano works are all concentrically riveting in their own ways, each of a piece yet showing Hope Lee's wonderfully varied intimacy with, and profound affinity for the pianoforte at its expressive best……This is an ear-opening and well-performed New Music piano session, a highlight of the year! If you resonate with the piano and the Modern this one is essential and lively. Listen by all means.”
Grego Applegate Edwards, https://classicalmodernmusic.blogspot.com/2019
Secret of the Seven Stars. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2012.
Indispensable and illuminating liner notes remind us that this is “the third joint recording featuring the music of Hope Lee and David Eagle.” I had the pleasure of recommending their second project renew’d at ev’ry glance, Centrediscs, 2008 as a “carefully made and artfully assembled work that would reward repeated listening with pleasure and insight.” Lee and Eagle are totally committed artists. I comment on three of their five new works to get across a flavour of this recording, and invite you to draw your own conclusions.
[...]. Ms. Lee notes that her composition (just under 20 minutes) is inspired by the Revelation to John and various Chinese artistic traditions. At the start we hear a clear triangle ringing. Pizzicato plucked and screaming swirling arco strings increase the tempo and density of the soundspace. Joseph Macerollo’s accordion chords punctuate it, Ryan Scott’s percussion burbles through it. Novel sonic shapes appear: curved lines, jerky lines, muddles, and wide swaths of sound that devolve downwards skirting the zone of melody. These musical shapes are the syntax of a cultural narrative. There is also a perceptible structure to this spacey composition—its squeaks, percussive clicks, rush of strings, explosions of bells, fade into silence and arise again in a succession of modules until Ms. Lee has completed her representation of the human tensions that join heaven and earth in our present cycle of time. Stanley Fefferman, Showtime Magazine
Secret of the Seven Stars. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2012.
“These five works by Hope Lee and David Eagle explore sonic transformation of musical gestures and sonorities. In close collaboration with outstanding interpreters, their music reveals connections between the sound worlds of the chamber and electroacoustic music of our time and the intimate approach to listening in the musical practices of ancient China. Secret of the Seven Stars, the title piece on the CD, was premièred by Toronto’s New Music Concerts. In the Globe and Mail Robert Everett-Green wrote ‘Lee’s distinctive scoring was beautifully transparent, even when thick with independent parts. This clarity, with the silvery upper tones that dominated the piece, gave the music a magical glow from start to finish.’ The solo works on the disc feature the expressive virtuosity of German accordionist Stefan Hussong and Canadian flutist Robert Aitken. The nuances of the interpretation are revealed through close recording and live digital processing immersing the listener in these evocative pieces.
... Macerollo's accordion is deliciously deep and mellow sounding. [...]. Here, [Secret of the Seven Stars] the accordion's extended resources are on display: pitch bending, bellows shaking and other titillating accordion exotica. Both works trace the emergence of entire sound worlds from a single, sustained pitch--a process the composer repeats in a consistently fascinating variety of
ways." Nic Gotham, The WholeNote.
renew'd at ev'ry glance. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2008.
"Dynamic energy flows upward in Hope Lee’s “Fei Yang [driven by the wind] (2000). Joseph Macerollo’s masterful accordion growls, roars, and surges among propulsive rhythms of the excellent Accordes String Quartet. The energetic continuity of this pieceis remarkable.
[...]. The phrase “Renew’d at ev’ry glance” works as a title for this album that mingles the work of two composers because the details and the shape of the music here, so carefully made and artfully assembled, reward repeated listening with pleasure and insight." Stanley Fefferman, Showtime Magazine
Concert Reviews
“Chinesisches wiederum schimmert auch durch im »Imaginary Garden« von Hope Lee, viel feiner Dialog zwischen Trompete und Flöte, gelegentlich laut, auch über den Raum hinweg, durchaus auch oft an den Rändern zum Geräusch. Ohne jede Hinwendung zu rückwärtiger Tonalität schwebt da doch eine große melodische Farbe und Bildlichkeit über allem, von Elefanten über Drosseln bis zur Biene – Natur eben, aber natürlich nicht als naive Klangmalerei, sondern als fantastische Möglichkeit.”
Martin Bernklau, Reutlinger General-Anzeiger, 2016
“The featured work to wet the new-music enjoyer's appetite is by Hope Lee. I had the great honour of meeting Hope at a New Works Calgary concert put on by John Roberts and CBC. Hope Lee is a Canadian composer who now lives in Calgary. Her work came up through the Canadian Music Centre online streaming service. I was immediately drawn to the expressiveness and use of space to make the spirit of “ChanChan" (1979-81) and knew that I wanted to perform the work. The piece is aesthetically analogous to an expressionist painting with a distinct and contained palette of layered markings that ebb and flow, inventively using string instruments to create the world that is "Chan Chan." This work is going to push the orchestra and me artistically and musically, and we look forward to the challenge! "Chan Chan" is part of a larger masterpiece, "Onomatopoeia," written partially as a response to the lost lives/childhoods of innocent children during the Vietnam War.”
Eileen Kosasih, conductor, Calgary Arts Orchestra, 2015
“In the first half, Ms. Choi took on two solo piano works, Hope Lee’s marvellous telling of Han Dynasty painter Wang-fo and his pervasive ability to see into the mysteries of nature “Across the Veiled Distances (2004), and the transcendental quasi-improvised sounding Sungods (2007) by Brian Current.I have heard many works by Ms. Lee and always appreciate the confluence of styles she brings to her compositions. “Across the Veiled Distances” was no exception and I truly enjoyed this piece. Opening with hands at disparate ranges on the keyboard while making use of small fragmentary thematic ideas, Ms. Choi brought out the quiet lyricism and contrapuntally-driven narrative effectively, proceeding via a rising undulating bass line, until settling into a chordal language of parallelism.
There is a tremendous diversity of musical language that makes the piece constantly stimulating and interesting, reminiscent perhaps of a visionary artist’s internal world. Passages of dynamic chordal rhythms, martellato-struck bass notes, lovely quasi-impressionistic sections interspersed with the repeated-note motives that give way to trills and difficult-to-execute rhythms all comprise the work’s tapestry, all of which Ms. Choi brought under clear control. A return to Impressionistic broken chords at the end, which Ms. Choi allowed to resonate well, brought the work to a close. Ms. Choi played the work with suitable energy and brought off a good performance of this difficult piece. Here is a fine solo piano work that ought to prove a stable long-term addition to the Canadian piano repertoire and certainly ought to be performed again in the future.”
Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald, 2014
“Wahrend Olivier Messiaens Stück aus dem ‘Livre du Saint Sacrament’ shon zum zeitgenossischen Repetoire zahlt, was das Stück ‘gently rings in autumn wind’ der Kanadisch Hope Lee eine echte Entdeckung. Mit einer sanften Grundstimmung von Labial- registern liessen feine Ereignisse wie Wechseltone und Triller eine musikalische Herbstimmung entstehen, die durch den Wechsel auf Zungenregister eine herbe Note empfing.” Werner Fritsch / HNA Kassel, 2011
"Auf experimentelles Feld begab sich Dirigent Wolfgang Mettler mit „Secret of the Seven Stars": Europäische Erst aufführung des meditativen Werksatzes der Komponistin Hope Lee aus Kanada, die hier einen Bogen von chine- sischer Musiktradition z uwestlicher Instrumentalkultur mit klanglicher Abbildung alttestamentlicher Poesie und heu- tiger globaler Welt schlägt. Das hatte sich nun im Spiel einer extrem schwierigen Partitur darzustellen: Sphärenklänge flirrender Streichtremoli, Glissandofiguren, weit ins Atonale entrückte Melodik und- Harmonie, aufschreckende Clus- ter und flüsterndes Pianissimo, Ruhen und Drängen, verzahnt mit aufregender Percussion (Xylo- und Metallofon und Cymbeln) von Hsin Lee und klanglich fast elektronisch verfremdetem Akkordeon von Stefan Hussong. Bei aller medi- tativen Prägung der „Sieben Sterne" hatte sich Concerto Constanz mit der in strengen, Halt gebenden Metren ange- legten Komposition intensiv auseinandergesetzt, gab dem Werk Erlebnischarakter. Orchester, Solisten, Dirigent und die anwesende Komponistin ernteten großen Beifall."
Reinhard Müller / Südkurier, 5.12. 2011
“The other standout piece on this program, for me, was Hope Lee’s Secret of the Seven Stars, a new commissioned work for small string orchestra, accordion (Joseph Macerollo) and solo percussion (Ryan Scott). This ambitious work had a persistently high centre of gravity – no surprise, perhaps, given the title. It sifted its opening tutti chords till only the highest notes remained, testing them as a position of repose and also of sustained tension. It was as if Lee were measuring the melodic value of the bright upper tones we hear but don’t perceive in every instrumental note, while giving this analytic process an emotional urgency. Lee’s distinctive scoring was beautifully transparent, even when thick with independent parts. This clarity, with the silvery upper tones that dominated the piece, gave the music a magical glow from start to finish. The final sound was a gleaming accord with percussion that took a long time to fade away completely. I would have been game to hear the piece again immediately, especially with the fine attention paid by conductor Robert Aitken and the 15 members of his ensemble.”
Robert Everett-Green / The Globe and Mail, 2011
“Ms. Lee is one of Canada’s most accomplished composers who continues to use her Chinese background as an inspiration and motivation for producing challenging and fascinating works. The music is highly crafted and original with an accurate sense of colour and form. Her sensitive use of contrast and dynamics give her pieces a three dimensional aspect, which transports the listeners to a mystical space beyond the concert hall. Fei Yang in her Voices in Time cycle is one of the most fascinating works I have ever heard for accordion. The instrument at times blends perfectly with the four strings in the ensemble and then suddenly becomes an intruder such as a fierce wind or act of nature.”
Robert Aitken / Artistic Director, New Music Concerts Toronto, 2009
“Voices in Time (1992-1994) is the fifth work in the cycle. This 1994 broadcast recording of the New Music Concerts Ensemble, soundfiles and live electronics, is a fine performance of an excellent compositional idea. This idea comes to fruition in the superb Fei Yang (2000), an emotional and virtuoso powerhouse piece performed with unbelievable passion by Accordes and accordionist Joseph Macerollo. This is ensemble writing and playing at its best. Though at times challenging aurally, it is the beauty in texture and rhythm which makes Renew’d at ev’ry glance a tour de force showcase of two of Canada’s most distinctive composers”
Tiina Kiik / The Whole Note, 2008
“In these post modern times, one rarely encounters the word ‘masterpiece’ in the description of a new artistic creation, except perhaps with a tone of irony. However, it is the only word that adequately describes 1000 curves (one thousand curves ten thousand colours),.......1000 Curves is the result of an astonishingly successful collaboration between two of Canada’s most distinguished composers, Hope Lee and David Eagle, and Taiwan’s pre-eminent choreographer, Luo Man- fei. Only artists with full command of their technique and with access to an enviable breadth of imagination could create such a masterful work, filled with so many sensual and intellectual delights......... Underlying the entire score is an in- tense awareness of the joy and the pain that are ever present in the life an ultimate transfiguration of an artistic genius. Lee’s music unfolds into fluid structures built upon short fragments that repeat and expand into larger shapes in a fan-like manner. The harmonies are bold and fresh, filled with unexpected yet completely convincing dramatic destina- tions......... It is the mark of the highest artistic achievement when a piece not only compels a repeat performance but also points to hundreds of other possibilities for others to pursue. Such a work is 1000 Curves.” Allan Gordon Bell / MusicWorks 82 Winter 2002
“(gently rings in autumn wind), (von einem fremden Stern).......Ces deux oeuvres d’une compositrice canadienne d’o- rigine chinoise, ne manquent pas d’originalité. On y trouve une recherché constante d’élaboration au depart de petites cellules, qui transforme rythmiquement l’objet initial et utilize les possibilities de coloration des registrations.”
Le Magazine d’Orgue 42, Brussel, 1997
"Ms. Lee's music is as thought-provoking and richly imaginative as the images which inspired it.......The juxtaposition of Lee's two sources of inspiration for the piece suggests that with the deeper understanding of the heavens that has come with space exploration, those haunting, beautiful sounds with which '...I, Laika...' ends do sound beautiful to our ear be- cause now we have a better appreciation for the purity of the ancient wisdom that we hear in these clean, stark sounds. .... entends, entends le passé qui marche...for piano and tape is another effective and moving work.... In this work, Lee again shows that the expression of ancient wisdoms is not incompatible. Nanette Kaplan Solomon / The IAWM Journal, 1995
"(Tangram) The subtle integration of harpsichord colour with the brittle timbres of the tape showed Lee's imaginative use of stop registration and chord voicings." Elissa Poole / The Globe & Mail, 1994
"Hope Lee's magnificent entends, entends le passé qui marche...(1992) for piano and tape is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for this combination. Period. This highly introverted, spatial music is elegant, aesthetically appeal- ing, yet emotionally poignant and spiritually moving. The form of the nocturne comes to mind immediately, and indeed, 'entends...' is a kind of night music exploring the subconscious through its use of darker, mysterious timbres and ascetic gestures."
The Albertan Composer, Fall/Winter 1994
"Hope Lee's ...I, Laika... is full of dramatic and enigmatic music in a state of continual metamorphosis. Driving rhythms give way to curious interactions among the piano, flute and cello, which then soon change into something else. ...I, Laika... as whole is absorbing, and Lee's instrumental writing (including non-standard techniques used in oblique, unselfconscious ways) is especially so." Gary Barwin / SoundNotes, Fall/Winter 1994
"Lee's '...I, Laika...', a work for flute, cello and piano, is a work of tremendous drama and cogency. Nothing about the score is on a modest scale. It is ambitious in scope and presents innumerable challenges to its players."
Eric Dawson / Calgary Herald, 1992
"The work, entitled Nabripamo, took first prize in the chamber music section of the competition, for which Boulez was the sole judge.....The flamboyance of their (performers') efforts had a certain heroic grandeur, as though Lee were writing an epilogue to the monumental keyboard projects of the nineteenth century."
Robert Everett-Green / The Globe & Mail, 1991
"(MELBOAC)....Komposition durch das Cembalo stets so klar, wie Wasser zumeist nicht mehr ist"
Reinhard Kager / Aspekte Salzburg, 1990
"Hope Lee's playfully eccentric ...I, Laika..." for flute, cello and piano, seemingly unsynchronized rapid passages and extended techniques blend into a quirky study on Oriental cosmology. ....it is consistent with the melancholy, oddly engaging character of the music." Gregg Wager / Los Angeles Time, 1990
"......of the seven works programmed by the Toronto Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra to show off the Chinese mastery of Western idiom, only Hope Lee's 'Chan Chan' (from her Onomatopoeia) made the transition without strain. Her tone- picture of flowing water (for 14 strings) was full of picturesque imagery, often quite subtle, ending with an adroit closing sequence."
Ronald Hambleton / The Toronto Star, 1990
across the veiled distances. Music by Hope Lee. Centre- discs, 2019.
“A select collection of piano music spanning nearly four decades (1979-2017), Across the Veiled Distances (Centredisques 27219) gives to us some five thoughtful and very pianistic works by Hope Lee, who deserves our attention as an accomplished voice on the New Music scene. A sensitivity to touch and timbre marks the music out,…..The clearly sensuous facticity of part articulation is given palpable creative thrust in the readings here by excellent exponent Yumiko Meguri, a pianist of decidedly high caliber with great sympathy to Hope Lee's poetics of piano gesture……The solo piano works are all concentrically riveting in their own ways, each of a piece yet showing Hope Lee's wonderfully varied intimacy with, and profound affinity for the pianoforte at its expressive best……This is an ear-opening and well-performed New Music piano session, a highlight of the year! If you resonate with the piano and the Modern this one is essential and lively. Listen by all means.”
Grego Applegate Edwards, https://classicalmodernmusic.blogspot.com/2019
Secret of the Seven Stars. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2012.
Indispensable and illuminating liner notes remind us that this is “the third joint recording featuring the music of Hope Lee and David Eagle.” I had the pleasure of recommending their second project renew’d at ev’ry glance, Centrediscs, 2008 as a “carefully made and artfully assembled work that would reward repeated listening with pleasure and insight.” Lee and Eagle are totally committed artists. I comment on three of their five new works to get across a flavour of this recording, and invite you to draw your own conclusions.
[...]. Ms. Lee notes that her composition (just under 20 minutes) is inspired by the Revelation to John and various Chinese artistic traditions. At the start we hear a clear triangle ringing. Pizzicato plucked and screaming swirling arco strings increase the tempo and density of the soundspace. Joseph Macerollo’s accordion chords punctuate it, Ryan Scott’s percussion burbles through it. Novel sonic shapes appear: curved lines, jerky lines, muddles, and wide swaths of sound that devolve downwards skirting the zone of melody. These musical shapes are the syntax of a cultural narrative. There is also a perceptible structure to this spacey composition—its squeaks, percussive clicks, rush of strings, explosions of bells, fade into silence and arise again in a succession of modules until Ms. Lee has completed her representation of the human tensions that join heaven and earth in our present cycle of time. Stanley Fefferman, Showtime Magazine
Secret of the Seven Stars. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2012.
“These five works by Hope Lee and David Eagle explore sonic transformation of musical gestures and sonorities. In close collaboration with outstanding interpreters, their music reveals connections between the sound worlds of the chamber and electroacoustic music of our time and the intimate approach to listening in the musical practices of ancient China. Secret of the Seven Stars, the title piece on the CD, was premièred by Toronto’s New Music Concerts. In the Globe and Mail Robert Everett-Green wrote ‘Lee’s distinctive scoring was beautifully transparent, even when thick with independent parts. This clarity, with the silvery upper tones that dominated the piece, gave the music a magical glow from start to finish.’ The solo works on the disc feature the expressive virtuosity of German accordionist Stefan Hussong and Canadian flutist Robert Aitken. The nuances of the interpretation are revealed through close recording and live digital processing immersing the listener in these evocative pieces.
... Macerollo's accordion is deliciously deep and mellow sounding. [...]. Here, [Secret of the Seven Stars] the accordion's extended resources are on display: pitch bending, bellows shaking and other titillating accordion exotica. Both works trace the emergence of entire sound worlds from a single, sustained pitch--a process the composer repeats in a consistently fascinating variety of
ways." Nic Gotham, The WholeNote.
renew'd at ev'ry glance. Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle. Centre- discs, 2008.
"Dynamic energy flows upward in Hope Lee’s “Fei Yang [driven by the wind] (2000). Joseph Macerollo’s masterful accordion growls, roars, and surges among propulsive rhythms of the excellent Accordes String Quartet. The energetic continuity of this pieceis remarkable.
[...]. The phrase “Renew’d at ev’ry glance” works as a title for this album that mingles the work of two composers because the details and the shape of the music here, so carefully made and artfully assembled, reward repeated listening with pleasure and insight." Stanley Fefferman, Showtime Magazine
Concert Reviews
“Chinesisches wiederum schimmert auch durch im »Imaginary Garden« von Hope Lee, viel feiner Dialog zwischen Trompete und Flöte, gelegentlich laut, auch über den Raum hinweg, durchaus auch oft an den Rändern zum Geräusch. Ohne jede Hinwendung zu rückwärtiger Tonalität schwebt da doch eine große melodische Farbe und Bildlichkeit über allem, von Elefanten über Drosseln bis zur Biene – Natur eben, aber natürlich nicht als naive Klangmalerei, sondern als fantastische Möglichkeit.”
Martin Bernklau, Reutlinger General-Anzeiger, 2016
“The featured work to wet the new-music enjoyer's appetite is by Hope Lee. I had the great honour of meeting Hope at a New Works Calgary concert put on by John Roberts and CBC. Hope Lee is a Canadian composer who now lives in Calgary. Her work came up through the Canadian Music Centre online streaming service. I was immediately drawn to the expressiveness and use of space to make the spirit of “ChanChan" (1979-81) and knew that I wanted to perform the work. The piece is aesthetically analogous to an expressionist painting with a distinct and contained palette of layered markings that ebb and flow, inventively using string instruments to create the world that is "Chan Chan." This work is going to push the orchestra and me artistically and musically, and we look forward to the challenge! "Chan Chan" is part of a larger masterpiece, "Onomatopoeia," written partially as a response to the lost lives/childhoods of innocent children during the Vietnam War.”
Eileen Kosasih, conductor, Calgary Arts Orchestra, 2015
“In the first half, Ms. Choi took on two solo piano works, Hope Lee’s marvellous telling of Han Dynasty painter Wang-fo and his pervasive ability to see into the mysteries of nature “Across the Veiled Distances (2004), and the transcendental quasi-improvised sounding Sungods (2007) by Brian Current.I have heard many works by Ms. Lee and always appreciate the confluence of styles she brings to her compositions. “Across the Veiled Distances” was no exception and I truly enjoyed this piece. Opening with hands at disparate ranges on the keyboard while making use of small fragmentary thematic ideas, Ms. Choi brought out the quiet lyricism and contrapuntally-driven narrative effectively, proceeding via a rising undulating bass line, until settling into a chordal language of parallelism.
There is a tremendous diversity of musical language that makes the piece constantly stimulating and interesting, reminiscent perhaps of a visionary artist’s internal world. Passages of dynamic chordal rhythms, martellato-struck bass notes, lovely quasi-impressionistic sections interspersed with the repeated-note motives that give way to trills and difficult-to-execute rhythms all comprise the work’s tapestry, all of which Ms. Choi brought under clear control. A return to Impressionistic broken chords at the end, which Ms. Choi allowed to resonate well, brought the work to a close. Ms. Choi played the work with suitable energy and brought off a good performance of this difficult piece. Here is a fine solo piano work that ought to prove a stable long-term addition to the Canadian piano repertoire and certainly ought to be performed again in the future.”
Stephan Bonfield, Calgary Herald, 2014
“Wahrend Olivier Messiaens Stück aus dem ‘Livre du Saint Sacrament’ shon zum zeitgenossischen Repetoire zahlt, was das Stück ‘gently rings in autumn wind’ der Kanadisch Hope Lee eine echte Entdeckung. Mit einer sanften Grundstimmung von Labial- registern liessen feine Ereignisse wie Wechseltone und Triller eine musikalische Herbstimmung entstehen, die durch den Wechsel auf Zungenregister eine herbe Note empfing.” Werner Fritsch / HNA Kassel, 2011
"Auf experimentelles Feld begab sich Dirigent Wolfgang Mettler mit „Secret of the Seven Stars": Europäische Erst aufführung des meditativen Werksatzes der Komponistin Hope Lee aus Kanada, die hier einen Bogen von chine- sischer Musiktradition z uwestlicher Instrumentalkultur mit klanglicher Abbildung alttestamentlicher Poesie und heu- tiger globaler Welt schlägt. Das hatte sich nun im Spiel einer extrem schwierigen Partitur darzustellen: Sphärenklänge flirrender Streichtremoli, Glissandofiguren, weit ins Atonale entrückte Melodik und- Harmonie, aufschreckende Clus- ter und flüsterndes Pianissimo, Ruhen und Drängen, verzahnt mit aufregender Percussion (Xylo- und Metallofon und Cymbeln) von Hsin Lee und klanglich fast elektronisch verfremdetem Akkordeon von Stefan Hussong. Bei aller medi- tativen Prägung der „Sieben Sterne" hatte sich Concerto Constanz mit der in strengen, Halt gebenden Metren ange- legten Komposition intensiv auseinandergesetzt, gab dem Werk Erlebnischarakter. Orchester, Solisten, Dirigent und die anwesende Komponistin ernteten großen Beifall."
Reinhard Müller / Südkurier, 5.12. 2011
“The other standout piece on this program, for me, was Hope Lee’s Secret of the Seven Stars, a new commissioned work for small string orchestra, accordion (Joseph Macerollo) and solo percussion (Ryan Scott). This ambitious work had a persistently high centre of gravity – no surprise, perhaps, given the title. It sifted its opening tutti chords till only the highest notes remained, testing them as a position of repose and also of sustained tension. It was as if Lee were measuring the melodic value of the bright upper tones we hear but don’t perceive in every instrumental note, while giving this analytic process an emotional urgency. Lee’s distinctive scoring was beautifully transparent, even when thick with independent parts. This clarity, with the silvery upper tones that dominated the piece, gave the music a magical glow from start to finish. The final sound was a gleaming accord with percussion that took a long time to fade away completely. I would have been game to hear the piece again immediately, especially with the fine attention paid by conductor Robert Aitken and the 15 members of his ensemble.”
Robert Everett-Green / The Globe and Mail, 2011
“Ms. Lee is one of Canada’s most accomplished composers who continues to use her Chinese background as an inspiration and motivation for producing challenging and fascinating works. The music is highly crafted and original with an accurate sense of colour and form. Her sensitive use of contrast and dynamics give her pieces a three dimensional aspect, which transports the listeners to a mystical space beyond the concert hall. Fei Yang in her Voices in Time cycle is one of the most fascinating works I have ever heard for accordion. The instrument at times blends perfectly with the four strings in the ensemble and then suddenly becomes an intruder such as a fierce wind or act of nature.”
Robert Aitken / Artistic Director, New Music Concerts Toronto, 2009
“Voices in Time (1992-1994) is the fifth work in the cycle. This 1994 broadcast recording of the New Music Concerts Ensemble, soundfiles and live electronics, is a fine performance of an excellent compositional idea. This idea comes to fruition in the superb Fei Yang (2000), an emotional and virtuoso powerhouse piece performed with unbelievable passion by Accordes and accordionist Joseph Macerollo. This is ensemble writing and playing at its best. Though at times challenging aurally, it is the beauty in texture and rhythm which makes Renew’d at ev’ry glance a tour de force showcase of two of Canada’s most distinctive composers”
Tiina Kiik / The Whole Note, 2008
“In these post modern times, one rarely encounters the word ‘masterpiece’ in the description of a new artistic creation, except perhaps with a tone of irony. However, it is the only word that adequately describes 1000 curves (one thousand curves ten thousand colours),.......1000 Curves is the result of an astonishingly successful collaboration between two of Canada’s most distinguished composers, Hope Lee and David Eagle, and Taiwan’s pre-eminent choreographer, Luo Man- fei. Only artists with full command of their technique and with access to an enviable breadth of imagination could create such a masterful work, filled with so many sensual and intellectual delights......... Underlying the entire score is an in- tense awareness of the joy and the pain that are ever present in the life an ultimate transfiguration of an artistic genius. Lee’s music unfolds into fluid structures built upon short fragments that repeat and expand into larger shapes in a fan-like manner. The harmonies are bold and fresh, filled with unexpected yet completely convincing dramatic destina- tions......... It is the mark of the highest artistic achievement when a piece not only compels a repeat performance but also points to hundreds of other possibilities for others to pursue. Such a work is 1000 Curves.” Allan Gordon Bell / MusicWorks 82 Winter 2002
“(gently rings in autumn wind), (von einem fremden Stern).......Ces deux oeuvres d’une compositrice canadienne d’o- rigine chinoise, ne manquent pas d’originalité. On y trouve une recherché constante d’élaboration au depart de petites cellules, qui transforme rythmiquement l’objet initial et utilize les possibilities de coloration des registrations.”
Le Magazine d’Orgue 42, Brussel, 1997
"Ms. Lee's music is as thought-provoking and richly imaginative as the images which inspired it.......The juxtaposition of Lee's two sources of inspiration for the piece suggests that with the deeper understanding of the heavens that has come with space exploration, those haunting, beautiful sounds with which '...I, Laika...' ends do sound beautiful to our ear be- cause now we have a better appreciation for the purity of the ancient wisdom that we hear in these clean, stark sounds. .... entends, entends le passé qui marche...for piano and tape is another effective and moving work.... In this work, Lee again shows that the expression of ancient wisdoms is not incompatible. Nanette Kaplan Solomon / The IAWM Journal, 1995
"(Tangram) The subtle integration of harpsichord colour with the brittle timbres of the tape showed Lee's imaginative use of stop registration and chord voicings." Elissa Poole / The Globe & Mail, 1994
"Hope Lee's magnificent entends, entends le passé qui marche...(1992) for piano and tape is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for this combination. Period. This highly introverted, spatial music is elegant, aesthetically appeal- ing, yet emotionally poignant and spiritually moving. The form of the nocturne comes to mind immediately, and indeed, 'entends...' is a kind of night music exploring the subconscious through its use of darker, mysterious timbres and ascetic gestures."
The Albertan Composer, Fall/Winter 1994
"Hope Lee's ...I, Laika... is full of dramatic and enigmatic music in a state of continual metamorphosis. Driving rhythms give way to curious interactions among the piano, flute and cello, which then soon change into something else. ...I, Laika... as whole is absorbing, and Lee's instrumental writing (including non-standard techniques used in oblique, unselfconscious ways) is especially so." Gary Barwin / SoundNotes, Fall/Winter 1994
"Lee's '...I, Laika...', a work for flute, cello and piano, is a work of tremendous drama and cogency. Nothing about the score is on a modest scale. It is ambitious in scope and presents innumerable challenges to its players."
Eric Dawson / Calgary Herald, 1992
"The work, entitled Nabripamo, took first prize in the chamber music section of the competition, for which Boulez was the sole judge.....The flamboyance of their (performers') efforts had a certain heroic grandeur, as though Lee were writing an epilogue to the monumental keyboard projects of the nineteenth century."
Robert Everett-Green / The Globe & Mail, 1991
"(MELBOAC)....Komposition durch das Cembalo stets so klar, wie Wasser zumeist nicht mehr ist"
Reinhard Kager / Aspekte Salzburg, 1990
"Hope Lee's playfully eccentric ...I, Laika..." for flute, cello and piano, seemingly unsynchronized rapid passages and extended techniques blend into a quirky study on Oriental cosmology. ....it is consistent with the melancholy, oddly engaging character of the music." Gregg Wager / Los Angeles Time, 1990
"......of the seven works programmed by the Toronto Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra to show off the Chinese mastery of Western idiom, only Hope Lee's 'Chan Chan' (from her Onomatopoeia) made the transition without strain. Her tone- picture of flowing water (for 14 strings) was full of picturesque imagery, often quite subtle, ending with an adroit closing sequence."
Ronald Hambleton / The Toronto Star, 1990