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PERFORMANCES
GENERAL: "A first rate clarinetist"
- NEW YORK TIMES
"Brilliant"
- NEW YORK TIMES
BOLCOM "CONCERTO"
"The slow movement (of the Bolcom concerto) gave Bermel ample opportunity to demonstrate the beautiful tone the clarinet is possible of producing in the hands of a master....Bermel left little room to doubt his command of the instrument as he easily handled the demanding passages in [the final] movement."
- GREENSBORO NEWS AND RECORD
BERNSTEIN "PRELUDE FUGUE AND RIFFS"
The lush, sassy tones of clarinetist Derek Bermel flowed irresistibly through the "hot" and "cool" landscapes of this work [Bernetein Prelude Fugue and Riffs ], culminating in a riotous jam session that recalls the sophisticated swing of Woody Herman and Benny Goodman.
- NEWSDAY
In the final piece, a "Prelude, Fugue and Riffs" that Bernstein wrote in 1949 for Woody Herman& Derek Bermel, the clarinet soloist, helped underline the brash exuberance of this young work, Lenny at his cockiest and best.
- NEW YORK TIMES
BERMEL "VOICES"
"Derek Bermel's "Voices," a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, is a crowd-pleaser that is likely to enter the repertory of every orchestra that had a representative in the audience. Part of the appeal lies in the virtuosity and charisma of the composer, who was soloist. There doesn't seem to be anything Bermel can't do with the clarinet; but the appeal also lies in the music, which adds dimensions of wit and intelligence to melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of immediate popular appeal. This is the kind of piece that makes your day."
- BOSTON GLOBE
BERMEL "THEME AND ABSURDITIES"
The 32-year-old American composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel recalls the much earlier model of virtuosos such as Rachmaninoff and Kreisler, who kept themselves supplied with flattering showpieces. Bermel's "Theme and Absurdities" is a short, dizzying clarinet solo that spins off into fanciful pyrotechnics, weaving in bits of cartoon grotesquerie, angular modernist gestures, Benny Goodman swoops, baroque filigree, drunken glissandos, klezmer riffs, operatic high notes and theatrical dialogues between the high register and the low. The whole thing ends with a note of humor and hope, trailing off with the sunrise opening of Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra."
- NEWSDAY
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