David Heuser

Press & Reviews

Performance by the Texas Music Festival Orchestra, Carl St. Clair conductor, reviewed by Charles Ward in the Houston Chronicle (July 2005):

“David Heuser's A Screaming Comes Across the Sky was a shot-in-the-arm beginning. Commissioned by the festival, Heuser's music certainly matched the title through its intense, driving rhythms and thunderclap-loud outbursts. This was all-American music at its most dynamic and visceral. Yet the piece by the University of Texas-San Antonio composer was well-crafted and smartly orchestrated … The music continually engaged mind and body as it careened along.”

Performance by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (June 2004), Timothy Jones, baritone, and Brett Mitchell, conductor. From a review by Andrew Druckenbrod in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (This concert was one of the Post-Gazette’s Top 10 Best Classical Concerts for 2004; this work was one of only two works specifically mentioned in that year-end write-up.):

"Saturday night he [Timothy Jones] wasted not a single drop of wit in premiering David Heuser's hilarious Immaculate, Bored, Off-key and Vain, written for Jones. "This work is just the sort of music classical music needs more of. Yes, music must take us to spiritual heights, but occasionally it can make us laugh, too. I am always amazed by how many living composers forget that music can be entertainment (even revered figures such as Mozart and Haydn thought so). "Heuser certainly doesn't need to be reminded. The texts to the four songs in this set by Jack Prelutsky are hilarious in a Shel Silverstein sort of way. You can tell that even by the titles, such as "Today Is Very Boring" and "I'm the Single Most Wonderful Person I Know." But it was Jones' comedic expressions and timing that adroitly brought out the humor. His voice, rich and burnished, provided technique when asked. The ensemble, led here by conductor Brett Mitchell, matched his energy.

From a review of the same performance by Mark Kanny in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

"The highpoint was composer David Heuser's Immaculate, Bored, Off-key and Vain, a cycle of four songs delivered with charismatic brilliance by baritone Timothy Jones. His resonant vocalism was wedded with a vivid dramatic sensibility to convey a woman's compulsion to wash everything (including sponging a pie), utter boredom and conceited musicianship before concluding with "I'm the Single Most Wonderful Person I Know." Jones even played violin for a moment. The spirited performance was led with superb assurance by Brett Mitchell."

From a review of a performance by the Olmos Ensemble with Timothy Jones, baritone, San Antonio, Texas, reviewed by Mike Greenburg in the San Antonio Express-News, May 2005:

"[Timothy] Jones, backed by a mixed instrumental quintet, had a more accommodating vehicle for his expressive and vocal powers in Heuser's Immaculate, Bored, Off-Key and Vain, settings of four children's verses by Jack Prelutsky. The texts, all richly amusing in ways that appeal equally to children and adults, depict the title's personality traits. Heuser's refreshing music supports them well. "

Performance by Michael Burgess and Geoffrey Waite on November 2004 reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg. (This concert was one of the Express-News’ “Best of the Year in Classical Music” for 2004; this piece was the only piece specifically mentioned in that year-end write-up.):

"Making the strongest impact was the premiere of David Heuser's O the White Towns, a closely observed setting of a poem by Olga Cabral, for tenor and piano. Heuser had previously set another Cabral poem, Lillian's Chair, with an apt intimacy. O the White Towns presented a different challenge - a cinematic reflection of the era of school desegregation... His setting is fully engaged with the sweep of history and the personal stakes in the poem."

From a performance by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (July 2003), reviewed by Andrew Druckenbrod of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

" That was followed by the more substantive Catching Updrafts for violin, cello, clarinet and piano by David Heuser. This work of mood swings and unsettling glissandos unveiled poignant moments, as when violinist Ines Voglar and clarinetist Kevin Schempf shared a hauntingly gorgeous melody near the end."

Premiere performance by the Soli Chamber Ensemble reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg (September 2000):

"The centerpiece [of the concert] was David Heuser's Catching Updrafts, composed over the summer on a research stipend from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where Heuser teaches. This coloristic piece, scored for Soli's core complement of violin, clarinet, cello and piano, draws its name and its ideas from the serene gliding and dramatic descents of hawks and eagles. There was much to like in this music, especially in the violent, craggy music of the descents and the lovely, serpentine rising passages."

Mike Greenburg, writing in the San Antonio Express-News about a performance of the first song of this set, Lillian's Chair, by Linda Poetschke (April 2003):

"[a] lovely portrait of a departed woman"

Performance by Valerie Vidal (April 2004) at a concert of works performed by Aura with choreography by the Sandra Organ Dance Company at the University of Houston. Reviewed in the Houston Chronicle by Molly Glentzer:

"Gibbs also showed promise as a choreographer, presenting Elements, a trio for Willison, de Sa Martins and David Armendariz. She had one of the best scores to work with: David Heuser’s 1998 Deep Blue Spiral. Another “electroacoustic” work for soloist and tape, the music was dynamically performed by alto saxophonist Valerie Vidal. (A doctoral student and Aura’s assistant director, Vidal was the night’s true star.) Elements was a decently crafted mix of unison work and solos, with cool angular arm work and acrobatic partnering. But it never quite reached the same pitch as the music."

Performance by Morgan King (October 1999) reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"With its jazzy solo line seamlessly integrated with the crashing, nervous, streetwise, cop-show adrenaline rush of the tape part, Deep Blue Spiral wanted to be heard in a hip urban warehouse, not in the UTSA Recital Hall."

From a review of the premiere performance by Diane Windeler in the San Antonio Express-News (November 2003):

"Baby Toys is a delightful, impish percussion score for rattles, squeaky things, electronic gizmos and nursery-version musical instruments, written for this concert by David Heuser of the University of Texas at San Antonio. There was actually coherent structure and form to it, performed by conductor Heuser and four musicians sitting cross-legged on a carpet strewn with kids' room clutter."

Mike Greenburg, writing in the San Antonio Express-News (10/8/2002). :

"From David Heuser of UTSA came the harrowing Cuchalainn's Warp-Spasm, a 2001 piece for live spoken voice, electronic tape and digital effects processors. The spoken text, from a bloody Irish epic, is digitally processed with echo effects and distortion during performance. The speaker, Moumin Quazi, must have been unflappable to get through it. "Technical details aside, the piece is just plain compelling. It fully and effectively conveys the dark, violent, monstrous atmosphere of the text, and it's like nothing you've heard before."

The concert for which Mr. Greenburg wrote this review was named one of the top 10 classical musical events in San Antonio for 2002 by the San Antonio Express News, and this piece was singled out with a special mention (December 2002):

"...and David Heuser, whose harrowing Cuchalainn's Warp-Spasm for speaker, tape and digital effects indicated a wholly singular musical mind."

Performance by James Lowe (February 2001) of ten of the Miniatures (Thorn and Bells were not performed) reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"In the course of a revelatory solo recital on Thursday, pianist James Lowe gave the premiere of David Heuser's Miniatures for Piano, 10 short pieces composed between 1985 and 1999. Heuser's idiom is in the modernist mainstream of stretched tonality and clear expressive purpose.His miniatures reflect back on several important currents of the past century. One is a percussive, rhythmically vibrant homage to Alberto Ginastera; another is a nervous rag. Others are variously jaunty, tender or pensive. All are exceptionally well-crafted, and all contain a lot more music than the term "miniature" might suggest."

Performance by Allyson Dawkins (February 1999) reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"I was impressed with its finely crafted mix of aggressiveness, rhythmic drive and yearning melody."

Performance by Janalen Fischer (October 1999) reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"...its urban boogie-woogie bang-bang alternated with some quiet chord-based passages and, at the end, a section as cool and glistening as an ice floe."

Performance from October 1999 reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"...a work with a strong narrative structure and some lovely, poignant moments."

Performance by the Eugene Symphony, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor, reviewed in the Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) by Michael Souther (May 1997):

"After intermission, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the orchestra presented the West Coast premiere of a work commissioned by Harth-Bedoya for the New York Youth Symphony. Composed by David Heuser in 1995, "Cauldron" is an exciting, dynamic tour-de-force, with a relentless ostinato, here taken up by the piano, then the harp, then migrating around the ensemble, never completely disappearing. "The performance was excellent, the large orchestra was at its best, and the energy never waned. All sections of the orchestra got to shine in turn, and the playing left one full of admiration both for the musicians and for the young composer of this fine work."

The same performance reviewed by Fred Crafts on GaurdLine:

"Although the orchestra seemed uninspired with Mozart's overture to "The Abduction from the Seraglio," it certainly connected with Heuser's propulsive "Cauldron." This raucous contemporary piece, being given its West Coast premiere, was built on a driving rhythm pattern that erupted into cha-cha-chas, with brass and percussion that stirred the blood."

Performance in October of 1999 reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg. Not all of this is glowing, but it's great fun to read:

"An octet for winds showed great promise in the complex, shifting rhythmic currents of the first movement, a sort of cockeyed march, and the third, a fugue in bold colors. Of the finale, a limp and directionless chorale, I can only speculate that an evil music librarian must have appended a composition student's harmony exercise to the end of Heuser's score. What on earth was the man thinking about?"

Review of Works on CDs

Deep Blue Spiral

From a review of the CD Juggernaut in Saxophone Journal (July/August 2003) by Paul Wagner:

"This is a terrific piece that belongs on the jazz world as well. Prepare yourself for a wild ride into your imagination. The rhythms are driving and exciting while the whole piece is absolutely fascinating."

From a review of the same CD in American Music Center's New Music Box (Issue 43, Vol. 4, No. 7):

"...David Heuser's adrenaline-rush Deep Blue Spiral round[s] out this exhilarating recording."

From a review of the CD Twilight Remembered in Fanfare (May/June 2004) by Paul Ingram:

"David Heuser's up-tempo Still Life with Fruit is more effective, with memorable, incantatory thematic fragments passing from flute to mallet instruments and back again, mediated by mysterious drums and cymbals. Finally the flute gets rhythmic too, as well as melodic, both aspects beautifully sustained by Kim McCormick."