Toussaint
Before the Spirits
This impressive chamber opera… Ruehr's score is challenging and original yet highly listenable… pulsing, tonally adventurous accompaniment and arching, lyrical vocal writing…Ruehr is a composer to watch” (Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News, August 2008)….more on this review
… had the audience on its feet, cheering, whistling, and applauding…combines
a lyrical outpouring energized by motor rhythms that never become mechanical…compelling,
emotional, theatrical….takes us back to the beginnings of the art, and
to one of the first great operas, Gluck's ''Orfeo''--- Richard Dyer, Boston Globe,
June 2003
Ruehr writes for the voice with a naturalness and beauty that's both purposeful
and immediately appealing. More operas from her, please.--- T.J. Medrek,
Boston Herald, June, 2003
… atmosphere and tension charged with African rhythms and earthy melody.---George
Loomis , London Financial Times, June, 2003
… premiered to a packed, on-its-feet crowd …not in recent memory
has an opera premiere stirred such overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from
a Boston audience.---Bay Windows, June, 2003
More Reviews on Toussaint
Before the Spirits
FOURTH STRING QUARTET
“Ruehr writes music with heart and intelligence…forceful sense of character and expression…” (Daniel Ginsberg, The Washington Post)
"is a direct response to the Mozart and Beethoven quartets and sounds as if it has soaked up essential qualities from both: shifting light-dark moods and textures; great dancing rhythms; and, best of all, aria-like songs." (Richard Scheinin, the San Jose Mercury News)
The Manhattan Trade School for Girls (film score)
“When accompanied by the ingenious score created by Elena Ruehr…Manhattan Trade School for Girls is catapulted into the sublime…” (Bruce Bennett, the Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities)
“Does exactly what music for films of the silent era should do, which is sustain a film, gently lift it off the ground, and hold it in the air while you are listening to it and seeing it” film curator Patrick G. Loughney
Ladder to the Moon
Underneath the music's surface serenity was a primal energy that built
to a powerful climax both thrilling and disturbing --T. J. Medrek, Boston
Herald, March 2003
Third String Quartet
An astounding success, conveying an emotional directness the audience could
easily grasp, yet still holding musical complexities that should make it
a performance staple in the quartet repertory---Keith Powers, Boston Sunday
Herald, June 2001
Gospel Cha Cha
A tightly linked chain of musical episodes, each more riveting than the
last.---Gwendolyn Freed, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb 2001
Cymbal and Spice
A score of vivid aural colors....jeweled with surprising syncopations---Debra
Cash, Boston Globe, May, 2000
Law of Floating Objects
Stunning...a landscape beautifully lighted by Ruehr’s canny instinct
for knowing when and how to vary key, timbre, and harmony---Richard Buell,
The Boston Globe, May, 2000
Masterfully crafted and magically beautiful to hear---David Cleary, 21st
Century Music, December 2000
Shimmer
Canonic imitation and bright Orchestration bring joy to the listener---American
Record Guide
Lullabies and Spring Songs
Ruehr's concepts are complex, full-blown and florid...the bittersweet “Stars” is
a song to treasure--JaneShaw, Hilton Head S.C Island Packet, March 2000
First String Quartet
There’s no mistaking the profusion of ideas, the adroitness of technique
and the restlessness of spirit that permeate this music---Josiah Fisk,
Boston Herald, November 1993
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