On Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions for piano
"…Evolving Cycle of Two-Part Modal Inventions alternates spare percussive textures with onslaughts of brittle fury. Pianist Walter Pate effectively brought out the emotion contained within the hard edges.”
– Ed Roberts, The Washington Post
On Comme de Longs Nuages – Past Are the Years...
for tenor and vocal ensemble
"Mr. Costinescu has built an imaginative sound surface that translates the bitter nostalgia
of the text with considerable dramatic impact.”
– Peter G. Davis, The New York Times
On Voices Within for solo violin
“Gheorghe Costinescu’s 1989 Voices Within is a stunning work. It begins with the usual abrupt, truncated modernist gesture, but then unfolds in a manner that, while immersed in this tradition, also shows a highly personal take on it. Costinescu weaves––that’s the right words, there are so many simultaneous strands at any moment––a texture that is constantly mutating, surprising, richly detailed, polyphonic.”
– Robert Carl, 254 Fanfare
"…a work of remarkable passion and invention. …sophisticated magic.”
– Ed Roberts, The Washington Post
On Sonata for the Piano
“...the music puts what feels like dense experience and powerful intellect into exhilarating, physical action.”
– George Grella, New York Classical Review
On Nine Portraits from the Wild for soprano and piano
“...the composer has as much charm and humor as he does determination and intensity....
a composer with a rare range of creativity."
– George Grella, New York Classical Review
On Jubilus for soprano, trumpet, and percussive body sounds
"It is a work of enormous vitality and originality." – Robert Croan, Pittsburg, Post-Gazette
On À la Recherche du Chant – Pantomime for chamber orchestra
"...Costinescu proves a rather stupefying imagination and richness of invention."
– Antoine Golea, Carrefour
"...The effect is mind-blowing; you have to see it to believe it. ...Pantomime is a masterpiece.
Once seen, you’ll never forget it."
– Robert Carl, Fanfare
Quotations from reviews on the same work: The Musical Seminar – Stage work
“His [Costinescu’s] idea of language and music is not Verdi’s, or Puccini’s, or even Berg’s. Rather he breaks down the language into its constituent vowel and consonant sounds. ... a Joycean trip through music... . the five Juilliard musicians had a lot of fun (the composer was at the piano) and created a good deal of pandemonium.”
– Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times
“... a one of a kind, exhilarating and marvelously flaky work of genius.”
– Richard Buell, The Boston Globe
“This reviewer may be found on various rooftops, proclaiming it the find of the ‘80s.”
– Richard Buell, The Boston Globe
“Mr. Costinescu’s music serves to augment verbal description. It is a kind of thesaurus in sound – providing a musical enhancement for us to look up when words will not quite suffice. ... One is entertained by ‘The Musical Seminar’... Indeed, it gives us much to think about.”
– Bernard Holland, The New York Times
On the premiere of the German version of The Musical Seminar at the State Opera of Stuttgart
“Costinescu has managed to do something like square the circle for musical theater. ... a multilayered human – all-too-human – ‘Tema con variazioni’ on a theme by Anthony Newman; ... something like the Diabelly Variations of the 20th century. The music of the world of the last thousand years has found its voice in Costinescu.”
– Dieter Koelmel, Stuttgarter Nachrichten
On a production at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow
“The Musical Seminar… is literally a staggering achievement both textually and musically and in this
production by Paul Stebbings, it’s a knock-out.… It is by far the most hilarious and entertaining
evening this reviewer has enjoyed in a decade.”
– George Wilson, The Scotsman
Comments by Other Composers
“Gheorghe Costinescu is an exceptionally interesting composer, a brilliant musician
and has a wonderfully cultivated mind.”
– Luciano Berio
“I found Mr. Costinescu and his music full of vitality, with a special theatrical flair.”
– Leonard Bernstein
“There is no question in my mind that Gheorghe Costinescu’s ‘The Musical Seminar’ is a masterpiece of its kind, perhaps even a work of genius. I am certainly happy to be counted as one of its staunchest admirers and believe that its composer is a man of remarkable, perhaps even unique talents.”
– Gunther Schuller