Lera Auerbach

“Cosmopolitan as the prolific composer is, she does not only fill out the Frauenkirche up to the dome with the large choral and orchestral forces, but also has the world in its entirety pictured in her mind's eye… Auerbach has composed symbolically charged music that perfectly fits this performance space.” (Die Welt, February 2012)

“Auerbach's composition dissolves traditional stylistic boundaries in favour of directly sensual movements of sound bearing witness to aesthetic obstinacy. It is as eclectic as it is original, as profoundly symbolic as it is highly subjective.” (Neues Deutschland, February 2012)

“Throughout the entire work Auerbach displays a consistent economy of means and a honed sense of dramatic timing. Though her language is inimitably her own, she speaks with the unproblematic directness of Shostakovich.” ("Notable Women" - Fanfare, January 2012)

“The opening night of Lera Auerbach's first full-length opera "Gogol" at the Theater an der Wien was Iiterally a mad success. The audience did not only reward the Russian composer's powerful work with enthusiastic applause, but also Christine Mielitz's excellent production and the versatile RSO Vienna under Vladimir Fedoseyev. Auerbach, who is also responsible for the libretto, leads the audience through the different circles of hell, through which the Russian poet Nikolai Gogol crossed during his last years. The composer doesn't approach her subject biographically, but has created a colourful spectacle of inner madness, of Russian weltschmerz.” (Vienna Online, 17 November 2011)

“The guests at the premiere of Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach’s full-length opera “Gogol” left delighted and enthused. The work itself, the production by Christine Mielitz, and Vladimir Fedoseyev's conducting all had an equal success. Auerbach, who also wrote the libretto for her opera, didn't compose a classic biography, but a colourful spectacle of inner madness. Even though the music has many references to composers from Prokofiev to Steve Reich, there is no doubt the 38-year-old Auerbach has created a very independent work.” (The Financial Times Deutschland, November 2011)

“Auerbach doesn't deny Russian tradition - on the contrary; she plays with it. The large orchestra is allowed to indulge in post-romantic timbre. …. There were unanimous ovations after the premiere at the Theater an der Wien.” (Kurier, 17 November 2011)

"Lera Auerbach’s Fragile Solitudes (Shadowbox)... succeeds by sheer force of musical imagination. Particularly impressive is her obvious but adroitly employed gift for grammatical nuance, the 23-minute-long work making often subtle, sometimes dramatic use of contrasted dynamics, tempi, pitch, and sonorities to punctuate and point to altogether beguiling effect." (The Classical Review, October 2011)

“Lera Auerbach's Sonata for Violin and Piano "September 11th", played by the festival's main mover and shaker, violinist Elmira Darvarova, and pianist Tomoko Kanamaru, is a direct, visceral, and substantial short sonata; its sudden shifts from lyrical to angular and jarring reflect the feelings many people, particularly New Yorkers and Washingtonians, felt that day, in music that is at turns terse, meditative and angry, with material reminiscent of Prokofiev, Schnittke, hints of Ustvolskaya – and a startling brief quote from “America the Beautiful”.” (Synaphaï, September 2011)