What the critics say
About “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind”
“ The piece that blasted composer Osvaldo Golijov's career into orbit …It is a kind of 35-minute survey of Jewish history and Jewish music; it is full of mystery, pain, and celebration.”
--Boston Globe
"[Osvaldo Golijov] is, quite simply, one of the world's great living composers. Any doubts were cast aside Friday evening in Boettcher Concert Hall when the Colorado Symphony presented a gripping performance of the "Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind."
"Issac the Blind" manages to be both epic and intimate. It hits the listener in the heart, soul and gut. It is beautiful music but in unconventional, perhaps even uncomfortable ways."
--Denver Post
“The earthiness and weightless mass of Golijov's music is such that something seems to be dying and coming to life with just about every phrase. The squeals of the klezmer clarinet could be joy, or terror. Either way, Golijov doesn't let you just listen. He drags you onto the floor, which is already crowded with jubilant ghosts, and lets you read the letters burning in the air .”
--The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Mystical and tradition-bound, it passionately evokes worldly and ethereal realms interchangeably, often within the same phrase.”
--Tucson Citizen
“[‘Dreams'] evokes several worlds, ranging from the antiquity and sobriety of prayer to the comparatively modern, free-spirited world of klezmer.”
--The New York Times
As his quirky, evocative, thoroughly original Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind demonstrates, Golijov covers the full range of emotions, colors and moods with the confident hand of a master.
--Rocky Mountain News, CO
“The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind brilliantly summons not just the klezmer spirit, but a sense of the whole Jewish experience through the centuries. ”
--Baltimore Sun
“ Everyone is talking about Osvaldo Golijov …The highlight [of the recording] is ‘The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.'”
--Los Angeles Times
About Todd Palmer playing “Dreams and Prayers”
“Todd Palmer brought the right energy and flexibility to the solo clarinet line…a reading that was viscerally and intellectually gripping.
--The New York Times
"In Golijov's Isaac the Blind, clarinetist Todd Palmer, spreading the clarinet part across five different instruments, was sensationally virtuosic and soulful.”
--Boston Globe
"Todd Palmer delivered a dazzling performance, playing five members of the clarinet family. His bass clarinet work in the first movement, which stayed oddly in the instrument's upper register, is the most amazing anyone is ever likely to hear."
This was not just the classical clarinet, but it was also the clarinet of the synagogue, the wedding band and street performer - raw, immediate and deeply human. In deliberately exaggerated fashion, Plamer often made these instruments screech, squeal and squawk.
--Denver Post
"In a powerful performance, Palmer captured the vocal inflections of the chant and klezmer idioms superbly. In the first movement, his wailing on the bass clarinet in an improbably high soprano range created a spine-tingling image of extreme dislocation and anguish. ”
--Toronto Globe and Mail
“Todd Palmer's virtuosic, multi-colored clarinet matches the St. Lawrence Quartet's expressive vibrancy note for note.”
--Baltimore Sun
“In every sense wailing from start to finish, thanks to Palmer – his fingers flying and his heart teetering up high on a wire.”
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"The music is involving and inventive - but it wouldn't have made as strong an impact without the brilliant virtuosity of clarinet soloist Todd Palmer, who nimbly played five different instruments during the work's 35 minutes. Palmer soared through the solo part's squawks, squeals, slides, slurs and smears, making everything sound musical.
--Rocky Mountain News, CO
"Palmer's performance of Isaac the Blind was a startling artistic experience whose echoes will haunt attentive listeners for a long time to come. He led the klezmer band in a strenuous, explosive rendition of this score, and may well have provided one of the signal individual performances of this Festival.”
--Post and Courier ( Charleston SC)
"Todd Palmer's wailing, pounding clarinet makes for a stunning performance and rewrites the language of music. He was both a master of his instrument and fearlessly unrefined when he decided to be.
--Vancouver Sun (Canada)
