Posts in ORCHESTRAL/LARGE ENSEMBLE
HYMN FOR SAXOPHONE ORCHESTRA (2005; Arr: 2019)

"Understated sonic beauty….Kati Agócs's Hymn was a haunting work that resonated with me. It explored the contrast between the independent instrumental parts within the timbral unity of the ensemble. It was one piece that could have been longer. A rare quality in new music." -HURD AUDIO BLOGSPOT.COM

“A gorgeous Hymn that begins with the warmth of ‘Das Rheingold’…incorporates both the vocal and intervallic strengths of the saxophone”- THE BIG CITY (NEW YORK), FOUR BROTHERS BLOG

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CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND PERCUSSION ORCHESTRA (2018)

”Soulful violin…throbbing percussion…piquant melodies and propulsive rhythms create a whirlwind, Gypsy-like dance, its exultant final flourish ending the concerto” - THE WHOLE NOTE

“Inspired by Lou Harrison’s midcentury concertos for violin and percussion, Kati Agócs surrounded violinist Jennifer Koh with pairs of mallet instruments — vibes, xylophones, marimbas and glockenspiel — and only made drums prominent in the finale….Agócs spun fluid and sometimes florid turns for Koh over ear-friendly harmonies and rhythms.” - THE ASPEN TIMES

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THE DEBRECEN PASSION (2015)

"A spiraling work for 12 female voices and chamber orchestra. A glimpse of any given moment exposes waves of Krzysztof Penderecki-like vocal clusters, pulsing chant, flurries of Baroque trumpet and sumptuous Late-Romantic orchestration....It's an overwhelming plate of emotion and color...The music's subject matter is, after all, the Passion of Christ. Agócs filters and rearranges the story through lenses of Hungarian poet Szilárd Borbély, Kabbalistic prayer and ancient Latin, Hungarian and Georgian religious texts. But it's more than a sum of disparate influences. The Debrecen Passion is high-craft, high-drama music that, in certain ways, goes down like an old-school Hollywood score cut to fit the fast, ADD-inspired edits of modern television: think chase-scene drums against big-band orchestral statements, intensely unsettling a cappella drops and religious fervor at its most intense, all within a few bars... or at the same time." - WQXR NEW YORK, Q2 ALBUM OF THE WEEK

"Agócs pays tribute to her Hungarian heritage in the disc’s titular score, The Debrecen Passion. As she melds the 12 female voices of the remarkable Lorelei Ensemble with glowing orchestral sonorities, Agócs also suspends vocal lines on Latin and Jewish texts. The 23‑minute work is an iridescent wonder." GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

"A mystical confluence of the sacred and secular illuminated by the superb Lorelei Ensemble and BMOP." - THE BOSTON GLOBE

"Agócs’s adventurous score employs 12 female voices, a chamber orchestra, whose percussion section includes a cimbalom, and vocal texts drawn from diverse sources. Ambitiously constructed, this visceral work is expertly orchestrated, Agócs achieving a myriad array of instrumental colour and texture. The vocal writing, calling for solos, duos, trios and chorus, is expertly crafted. All told, this work delivers a moving, spiritual experience, both powerful and uplifting."– MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

The Debrecen Passion an ambitious new score by the Boston-based composer Kati Agócs. Debrecen was the home city of the gifted writer Szilárd Borbély, who committed suicide last year and whose poems form the spine of Agocs’s “Passion,” surrounded by other texts, of medieval Latin, Hungarian, and Georgian origin, as well as a mystical Hebrew prayer. It is a striking work that places a complex sonic palette at the service of a visceral intensity of expression, one that can be glimpsed from the descriptive markings in the score, where Agócs writes at different points: “In large waves,” “Sheets of sound,” and “Arriving – Radiant.” Her billowing vocal writing is likewise highly expressive in an instrumental sense yet also subtle; at one point the chorus divides to sing three different texts simultaneously. As a result of this broader approach, at Saturday’s initial hearing, the precise meanings of the chosen texts felt less clearly distilled, and in some ways less important to Agócs, than the heterodox richness of the sound world she has fashioned for them. Under Rose’s direction, the excellent Lorelei singers and the unflappable BMOP players gave this work a dazzling first performance." – THE BOSTON GLOBE

“Effective writing for women’s voices–solo, and in trios and choruses…Who can resist the sound of women’s voices climbing high in close harmony? Agócs certainly couldn’t, as time after time she twisted rising vocal lines into radiant cluster chords, a sound capable of expressing either intense lament or exultation… the music was animated by a kind of Song-of-Solomon like merging of spiritual and earthly ecstasy…Agócs’s score remained unpredictable to the end, swinging between thoughtful violin solos to broad statements for the full orchestra to unison chants in the chorus. The composer seemed to pick up her texts and look at them from all angles….” – BOSTON CLASSICAL REVIEW

“Last came the other premiere, The Debrecen Passion by Kati Agócs, a Canadian of half-Hungarian-extraction who now teaches at New England Conservatory and has garnered a good deal of attention. Her work is not a passion in the sense of the oratorio-sized works of Bach and other Baroque composers, or in the revived style of Penderecki’s, but is a setting of seven lyric-sized texts…in these settings Agócs examines passions of several sorts, the fragility of love, the greatness of God, and, oh yes, the death of Jesus. While far from inaccessible, her writing is intricate and layered. Much of the choral treatment draws on earlier Ligeti techniques of “micro-polyphony,” densely packed, close dissonant harmony that, in the vocal writing, sounded ravishingly beautiful. The orchestral writing was fluent and often did its job well of adding emotional depth to the texts and the vocal lines; in two instances there were orchestral interludes of great power and beauty. – THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER

"About 23 minutes long, The Debrecen Passion blends the voices into instruments, and the instrumentalists into the voices. Lorelei Ensemble sings sections of starkly beautiful solo sections, duos and trios, but also vocalizes wordless melismas and dissonant pitches that challenge the mood. The orchestra performs many solos — flute, trumpet, snare drums and violin among them — but also chants some of the text alongside the singers......In the simplest way, everyone is a musician, serving the cause. Integrity in this case means that the accessibility of the lyrics is secondary to the sound-world. The feeling is religious, deeply spiritual; but it’s the sound that tells you this, not the words." - WBUR'S THE ARTURY

"Agócs typically assimilates several different cultural influences and multiple languages into her powerful and attention-getting style. A perfect example is the amazing Debrecen Passion. Thematically centered on the work of contemporary Hungarian poet Szilárd Borbély and influenced by the particular qualities of the Hungarian language and culture, The Debrecen Passion takes Christian and humanist texts and utilizes them in a unique read of the Passion story but without the usual voices in roles. In many ways I found this approach both refreshingly different and quite moving. This is a strong, dramatic and, occasionally unsettling work." -AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

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...LIKE TREASURE HIDDEN IN A FIELD (2011)


"Inspired by texts in Mattthew 13:14-16, ...like treasure hidden in a field urges the reader to keep spiritual values at the forefront of the mind. It’s structured as a five-linked movement sinfonietta, and offers the percussion section a field day. Chinese wind gongs and bells add that extra fillip of vividness to the canvas, evoking an aura of mystery and magic."– MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

"A different array of spiritual moods unfolds in … like treasure hidden in a field, which highlights Agócs’s keen ear for instrumental possibilities [and] bold sense of colour and architecture..."– GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

"Filled with attractive ideas..." - THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Gorgeous...a local composer to watch" - THE HUB REVIEW

"...like treasure hidden in a field winds the orchestra through a maze of left turns and unexpected flashes of discovery." -WQXR NEW YORK Q2 ALBUM OF THE WEEK

"Hypnotic" - THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER

"Artfully shaped for the 35-member ensemble…based on a parable from the Gospel of Matthew about the value of selling everything to buy the best pearl, its 'jeweled sonorities' include chimes, tuba, and rattles..." - NOTES ON NOTES

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VESSEL (2011)

"Vessel dates from 2011 and is written for two sopranos, alto and seven instrumentalists. Agócs combines English, Hebrew and Latin poems with interrelated subjects. They represent "three perspectives on a lover addressing her beloved (or child or loved one)". It is economically scored, and each performer is sharply profiled. It’s music with a timeless appeal."MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

"Vessel acts as a meditative, lyrical aftermath to the dizzying colors and twists of the previous music. At least relatively speaking: set for two sopranos, alto and seven instrumentalists, the music simultaneously delivers three poems in three languages – English, Hebrew and Latin Texts – building over a bed of shifting tempi and orchestral colors until only a single, repeated piano note is left to drift into (as the English text, by E.E. Cummings, declares) "the deepest secret nobody knows." - WQXR NEW YORK, Q2 ALBUM OF THE WEEK

"Music that seems to come directly from nature...it reveals a wonderfully accessible lyricism that unfolds with both drama and complexity…colorful and individual music that takes risks with both the ideas and the use of the instruments" - THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS, Citation for the 2014 Arts in Letters Award in Music

"Also sublime is Vessel, which utilizes the medieval technique of multiple simultaneous texts to create something unmistakably modern." THE BOSTON GLOBE

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SHENANIGAN (2011)

"The evening opened with Shenanigan, a hoedown whirl of symphonic fun...a burst of party energy..." - THE TORONTO STAR

"Shenanigan begins with loud dissonance, but soon works in a simple tune based on the interval of a fourth that captures the essence of Atlantic Canada's reels. Driven along by the strings, it is a showpiece for solo flute and for percussion. Shenanigan whirls with the energy, struggle, and humour of the people of our region." - THE ST. JOHN'S TELEGRAM (ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND)

“As a warmup to all the musical drama promised for the rest of the evening, we heard a buoyant, tidy rendition of Shenanigan, a 4-minute orchestral hoedown Windsor native Kati Agócs wrote for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010. It's a fun, accessible piece that shows off a symphony orchestra's full breadth, and deserves to be heard again." - MUSICAL TORONTO

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PERPETUAL SUMMER (2010)

"Gripping.... Perpetual Summer produced an array of sound montages to great effect... an ideal choice as an overture for the evening’s program."" - ONTARIO ARTS REVIEW

"A fascinating balance of strength and sadness" - PIONEER PRESS, TWIN CITIES

"Dense, bold, and wide-ranging...by turns discordantly suspenseful and richly majestic, complete with crashing cymbals and even a siren" - THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

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ELYSIUM (2010)

"Juxtaposes a tape part consisting of spoken-word field recordings recounting shipwrecks (almost a counterpoint in itself, the voices of the various narrators interwoven in such a deft manner) with a score in which the sea is perfectly heard, with the solo cello representing nothing less than the voice of God…” - BLOGUE CLAVIER BIEN TEMPERE (MONTREAL, CANADA)

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BY THE STREAMS OF BABYLON (2008)

"Encases the text’s lament in music of fluidity and austere beauty" - THE BOSTON GLOBE

“The work requires two sopranos to sing in straight tone, evoking the history of medieval liturgy. The sopranos, Lisa Bielawa and the composer herself, captured this mysterious historiocity with their gorgeously clear voices” - SUITE 101 CLASSICAL PERFORMANCES

"Brief, straight and altogether beautiful" - AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

"Phrases that leap and float, and sound both ancient and contemporary" - GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

“A delightful piece…the two voices blend superbly, their vocal lines weaving and hovering over the sumptuous orchestral musings” - MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

"A setting of psalm 137, the lament of a people in a foreign land who can no longer bring themselves to sing the hymns of their homeland....the piece is haunting and reflective…" - THE DAILY GAZETTE, SCHENECTADY, NY

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REQUIEM FRAGMENTS (2008)

"In the opening, piccolo and solo violin warily circled each other with super-high pianissimo notes and artificial harmonics. The effect was not so much ethereal as it was unearthly, the faint music of suns millions of light-years away." - THE HALIFAX HERALD CHRONICLE

"Requiem Fragments evolves from peaceful to anguished episodes through seamless interweaving of incandescent themes" GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

"Requiem Fragments traces a lifespan from idyllic childhood and onwards through the complications and complexities of everyday life. Feeding into it are the experiences of expatriates and refugees, so it has a burning resonance today. Insecurity and loss of innocence inform the narrative, and the music conveys a sense of forward movement throughout." - MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

"Requiem Fragments was moving and taut: rolling waves of tangled activity breaking into a cathartic tonal chorale - only to crash and collapse into a quiet, scattered ending." - THE BOSTON GLOBE

"Hypnotic" - THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER

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AT FIRST LIGHT (2000)

“Combines great tensile strength with a gorgeous unfolding of luminous lyrical episodes, rich inventive counterpoint, and a feeling of deep, elusive mystery.” - THE BOSTON GLOBE

“Imagine my delight when a passage in the cellos soon captivated my ears with the makings of a truly individual voice, a voice that increased in color and ingenuity as the work continued.” - THE BOSTON HERALD

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