The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 15 February 2003
‘Shadowlines, a masterly piece in six ‘canons”. Each of them stretches the old canon-form in some different way, superbly conceived…It has the transparent density, variety and concision of a Haydn symphony – and real innigkeit, and even comedy too, for it’s far more than a brilliant academic-pianistic exercise. It stands to tonality as the poet Cavafy was said to stand to the universe, ‘at a slight angle”.
Financial Times (David Murray), 19 February 2003
‘…the striking thing was how free they felt, almost as if Benjamin were improvising them on the spot… The way Benjamin maintained a repeating bass at a rock-steady pianissimo, while unleashing a fortissimo tumult all around it, was the most spellbinding part of the evening.’
The Daily Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), 25 May 2005
‘…the first major piano work of the 21st century…Technical rigour and ingenuity lie behind everything, as they do in Bach; but as in Bach, they disappear in the expression of feeling—the impression of the piece is of free fantasy. And it is wonderfully laid out for the instrument.’
The Boston Globe (Richard Dyer), 22 July 2003
‘…Shadowlines uses canonic technique in experimental ways. The imitating voices are sometimes transfigured: intervals are inverted, ferocious dissonance becomes delicate consonance.’
The New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 31 March 2007