ANNELIES VAN PARYS - PRESS QUOTES
Het lumineuze klanktapijt, op Wagneriaanse wijze doorgecomponeerd doch zonder het gebruik van al te nadrukkelijke leidmotieven, werd nu door de Vlaamse componiste Annelies Van Parys gearrangeerd voor een dertienkoppig ensemble. Zeker als de muziek naar de voorgrond treedt zoals in de "interludes" wordt duidelijk dat het een sterke bewerking is. In haar reductie van Debussy's partituur gaat geen verlies schuil, integendeel, de veelkleurigheid wordt grijpbaarder en transparanter in kleine bezetting.
The luminous soundweb, through composed in a Wagnerian way but without the all to emphatic leitmotifs, was now arranged by the Flemish composer for 13 musicians. Especially when the music is on the foreground like in the interludes, it becomes clear how strong this arrangement is. In her reduction of Debussy's score, there is no loss, on the contrary, the multicolour becomes more tangible and transparant in a smaller cast.
Pelléas et Mélisande - Kwadratuur, April 2012
In elk geval is de, na enkele weglatingen uit de opera, twee uur durende 'Pelléas et Mélisande' van Muziektheater Transparant een volwaardige eigentijdse invulling te noemen van Debussy's meesterwerk, waarin de luisteraar krachtig wordt meegezogen in een symbiotische ervaring van video, scène en muziek. Het arrangement van Annelies Van Parys heeft hierbij alles in zich om algemeen ingang te vinden, in een tijd waarin de kleine bezetting als een zegen komt om bepaalde muziek vaker live te horen...
In any case, after some omissions from the opera, the 2 hours lasting Pelléas et Mélisande of Muziektheater Transparant can be called a worthy contemporary interpretation of Debussy's masterpiece, where the listener is firmly immersed in a symbiotic experience of video, scene and music. The arrangement of Annelies Van Parys has everything to find general approval in times where a smaller cast is a blessing to be able to hear some music more often live...
Pelléas et Mélisande - Kwadratuur, April 2012
"Voor de niet-alledaagse bezetting van de vier Blindmankwartetten schreef Annelies Van Parys een muzikaal panorama waarin zelfs de megafoonmomenten teder opklinken"
"For the combined four Blindman quartets, a rather unusual cast, Annelies Van Parys wrote a musical panorama in which even the megaphone moments sound with tenderness"
BL!NDMAN - Geert Van Der Speeten in De Standaard 11 January 2012
"Music Theatre is sometimes referred to as the genre of the future. If so, than we're looking forward to a brilliant future with Asko/Schönberg Ensemble and VocaalLAB…With music theatre (small opera) lots of art forms have to come together, and this Oresteia makes a more than succeeded enterprise. First of all the music from Xenakis and Annelies Van Parys, then the sober "less is more" direction of Caroline Petrick, and the brilliant interpretation of Asko/Schönberg and the soloists of VocaalLAB and next to this the Asko chamber choir, conductor Alejo Pérez and percussionist Joey Marijs. The alternation of Xenakis' original, with rather aggressive and rough music and the more "female" insertions of Annelies Van Parys worked miraculously well. This Oresteia proved to be an overwhelming, intriguing experience for musicians as well as the public."
An Oresteia - Jury for De Ovatie - VSCD Classical Music Prize 2011 (NL), Flanders Music Centre, 26 May 2011
“…the adaptations were so well integrated that they - certainly after a first hearing - seemed to fit seamless in the rest. Performed by Muziektheater Transparant, Asko/Schönberg and VocaalLAB Nederland, the whole composition was an overwhelming experience."
An Oesteia - Peter Vianen, Gonzo, 27 February 2011
“…[Van Parys’s] score fits arrestingly well… The performance was overwhelming…”
An Oresteia - Maarten Beirens, De Standaard, 22 February 2011
“This performance again reflects the big talent of Annelies Van Parys who, as few other composers in Flanders, masters the art of limitation and has no fear for beauty and seduction.”
'An Index Of Memories' - Stefan Moens, De Morgen, 15 March 2010
“Her new work, Fragrances, finds a very nice balance between sensual harmonies and a particularly lively atmosphere. This also pleased the New York New Music Ensemble, that immediately proposed to play her work next month in New York.”
'Fragrances' - Maarten Beirens, De Standaard (article on Transit-Festival Leuven), 28 October 2008
“It's an immensely sad, powerful and disturbing show, in which the music sometimes seems to rebuke the crude self-justifications of the speakers, and sometimes seems cheerfully complicit with it; until the end, when Schubert's rhythms give way to a magnificently deconstructed, questioning coda by modern Flemish composer Annelies Van Parys, sung against an oddly chilling black-and-white image of the kind of idyllic European rural scene that could never, after 1945, look quite the same again.”
'Ruhe' - Joyce McMillan, Scotsman, 28 August 2008
“At the end, Schubert gives way to a new composition by Annelies van Parys and an astonishingly simple but effective piece of cinematography. Rarely do artforms come together so eloquently.”
'Ruhe' - Keith Bruce, Herald Tribune, 22 August 2010
“The performance ends in a modern composition (Ruhe) from Annelies Van Parys, that is touching and moving.”
'Ruhe' - Jeanette Vergouwen, BN / De Stem (Nederland), September 2007
“…So the composer can care about the most refined sonorous details without sounding overdone. Besides, unbelievably talented…”
'Einklang; (about the première with Flemish Radio Orchestra (dir. Yoel Levi) in Bruges) - Rudy Tambuyser, De Morgen, 22 November 2010
“Finally, Phrases V, from Annelies van Parys, is an incursion in a world where the dominant gods could be Debussy, Takemitsu and Ligeti. The reference to the Illuminations de Rimbaud is appropriate. Bravo. Ristic and Van Parys are the laureates amongst the laureates.”
'Phrases V' - Frédéric Cardin, La scena Musicale, cd review : Les Lauréats, February 2004
“Half of a film’s impact is always sound, and mention should be made of the music by Annelies Van Parys, an aleatoric work for wind ensemble that drives the film along with bursts of microtonal lines over deep-fathom drones. The music is the work’s only soundtrack.”
'Maanvis' - Taylor Jessen, Animation World Magazine, 15 December 2003