'… we finally reached what, in other parts of showbiz they would call the main attraction: Jonathan Harvey's Madonna of Winter and Spring. It was worth the wait. Few pieces can match Harvey's mystical 1986 work for fusing live orchestral sounds with electronics… What's more, the piece has a clear-cut structure: unrest gives way into a descent into "hell" and then a rebirth into a stratosphere of bells and trumpets…' there is no doubting the piece's stature.
The Times (Richard Morrison), September 1995
'The music's 40-minute course through its four linked sections - is charted with agreeable clarity and latterly contains passages of genuine radiance, with Harvey's gift for sustained melody much in evidence.'
The Sunday Telegraph (Malcolm Hayes), 1986
'From the instantly compelling, densely argued conflict of the opening, through the long, variously coloured predominantly electronic descent of its second section and the cavernous, hibernating stillness of the third, to its peacefully transfigured finale, it exercised a powerful grip by the sheer force of its inner logic and the firm, spiritually assured direction of its spiritual progress.'
The Daily Telegraph (Robert Henderson), 29 August 1986
'Few pieces can match Harvey's mystical 1986 work for fusing live electronic sounds with electronics that transform the acoustic instruments and add synthesizers for good measure. What's more, the piece has a clear-cut structure: unrest gives way to a descent into 'hell' and then a rebirth into a stratosphere of bells and trumpets. Some it its sounds are marvellous… there is no doubting the piece's stature.'
The Times (Richard Morrison)
The Times (Richard Morrison), September 1995
'The music's 40-minute course through its four linked sections - is charted with agreeable clarity and latterly contains passages of genuine radiance, with Harvey's gift for sustained melody much in evidence.'
The Sunday Telegraph (Malcolm Hayes), 1986
'From the instantly compelling, densely argued conflict of the opening, through the long, variously coloured predominantly electronic descent of its second section and the cavernous, hibernating stillness of the third, to its peacefully transfigured finale, it exercised a powerful grip by the sheer force of its inner logic and the firm, spiritually assured direction of its spiritual progress.'
The Daily Telegraph (Robert Henderson), 29 August 1986
'Few pieces can match Harvey's mystical 1986 work for fusing live electronic sounds with electronics that transform the acoustic instruments and add synthesizers for good measure. What's more, the piece has a clear-cut structure: unrest gives way to a descent into 'hell' and then a rebirth into a stratosphere of bells and trumpets. Some it its sounds are marvellous… there is no doubting the piece's stature.'
The Times (Richard Morrison)