Jeffrey Biegel Premieres Danielpour's 'Mirrors for Piano and Orchestra'
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, FEB. 26, 2010
"Danielpour’Äôs ’ÄúMirrors’Äù is an entertaining work, and I don’Äôt think the composer would mind my saying so.The movements are given titles ’Äì ’ÄúThe Trickster,’Äù ’ÄúThe Witness,’Äù ’ÄúThe Gambler,’Äù ’ÄúThe Poet,’Äù ’ÄúThe Warrior.’Äù These are ’Äúpersonality archetypes,’Äù the composer says, aspects of each of our personalities, and ’ÄúMirrors’Äù is a suite of character pieces, painting those traits in musical terms.
This newest piece is fluently written, witty in spots, and the solo pianist (Jeffrey Biegel) has plenty of flattering music, both poetic and virtuosic, to play. “The Trickster” is almost a bit of vaudeville, the pianist kicking up his heels with a fluffy show tune, the rhythmic syncopations faster than the eye, the back and forth between soloist and orchestra like the give and take of a couple of comedians. “The Gambler” is somewhat similar, but here the syncopations are more in the raucous Bernstein mode, the rhythms jazzy, the pianist zipping through fistfuls of notes as if he were dealing a loaded deck of cards. “The Witness” evokes an Ivesian mode, slow and mysterious, still and watching, as if things are happening in slow motion. “The Poet” comes off like American Rachmaninoff, frankly sweet, nostalgic, Romantic and melodic. “The Warrior” brings it all home with a driving, stomping, Prokofiev-like movement. Biegel, an old Juilliard classmate of Danielpour’s, already had it under his fingers, played it cleanly and clearly, and with style."
LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEB.26, 2010
“Mirrors,” in five movements, runs about 22 minutes and makes a legitimate claim on the audience’s attention. It’s a well crafted piece, made up of sections with titles such as “The Trickster” and “The Warrior.” It was composed for Jeffrey Biegel, who performed it solidly, reading from the score. “Mirrors” employs a number of styles, including those of Bartók and Bernstein, but the piece doesn’t feel pretentious or derivative. It is by turns percussive, lyrical, jazzy and percussive again. It is also emotionally direct and high-spirited. Biegel’s rounded tone was heard to best effect in the cadenza introducing the fourth movement, “The Poet.”
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