The U.S. Press


"The fascination of Liviu Marinescu's five-movement Homage Collage (2005) lies not in whether the listener can identify the many composers ranging from Palestrina to Ligeti whose work he refers to but in how the composer achieves continuity among all these references. While there appear to be some deliberate motivic interrelationships among some of them, what this piece reveals is how, to a musician living in the 21st century who is acquainted with the music of the past one thousand years, what is composed by such a musician is part of a living tradition in which nothing is alien, in which there is a single musical language capable of an infinite number of inflections. Despite all of the references to the distant and recent past in Homage Collage there is always Marinescu's rich imagination, which is reason enough to want to hear it again - and again."

Composer USA, Fall 2008


"The first half [of the concert] had commanding, important music: Liviu Marinescu's intensely contrapuntal Ostinato for cello and chamber orchestra and a rare performance of George Enescu's final work, the 1954 Chamber Symphony."

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 2006


"As the work unfolds, we get an occasional, but not obvious, hint of the original Bach material on which the piece is based [...] It is a well-conceived and touching artistic gesture: all the drama, interplay, and development that have gone before have reached a moment of quiet revelation and nostalgic, but unsentimental, reflection."

Society of Composers Conference Review, April 2004


"... this piece is at least clever, at best something considerably more; it should be heard again."

The Washington Post, November 2000


"... real expressive power and attractive rhetoric."

The Strad, March 2000


"... a big piece with startling moments."

Strings Magazine, February-March 2000


"... majestic assertiveness... the surprise never wears off."

New York Concert Review, December 1999



The European Press


"Speaking of Liviu Marinescu: the former Bucharest Music Academy student is becoming without any doubts one of the most authorized voices on the American music scene, from which he derives gestures and compositional formulas as well as the courage to distill various types of creative sparks, towards a world where everything is possible."

Ateneu, Bucharest, September 2008


"Beautifully tender... remarkably modelled... Liviu Marinescu held one of the most interesting night forums."

Kromeriz, Czech Republic, June 2008


"Liviu Marinescu is one of the young composers on the forefront of the musical avant-garde."

Romania Libera, Bucharest, June 2008


"The next piece is fascinating. Liviu Marinescu's Homage Collage contains a series of short movements which pay tribute to a wide range of different composers. The references are, at times, humorous, and delightfully convincing, with Marinescu using his compositional skill to hold the different styles together in a coherent form. Even if you knew nothing of the other composer's works, this would be an interesting piece of music, which acts as a showpiece for the instruments it uses. There are some wonderful clarinet flutter-tonguing moments in the Palestrina movement, serving as a fine example of the intelligence of this composer; Palestrina's influence is obvious, and yet the harmonic and musical language is far removed from what one would associate with Palestrina. The final movement contains a variety of influences, and is entitled Bach, Debussy and others. As such, it serves to unify the work as a whole, and brings the work to a coherent end. This is an interesting work, and I'd be very interested to hear more of Marinescu's music."

Carla Rees, MusicWeb International, UK, May 2008


"... thorough and commanding organization of the musical discourse."

Romania Libera, Bucharest, September 2007


"... Clearly, the high point [of the concert] was the European premiere of Pastiche, a collage of musical sequences written by the Romanian Liviu Marinescu for Steve Thachuk."

Westfalen Post, Germany, April 2003


"... although still very young, Liviu Marinescu showed through his Chamber Concerto that not only he has the intelligence and maturity expected from a modern artist, but also the ability to express himself through sounds in a convincing way."

Actualitatea Muzicala, Bucharest, June 1997


"... Liviu Marinescu is creating within the technical and aesthetical horizons promoted by Ligeti and Lutoslawski. Based on a gradual strategy of transformation, his piece shows an impeccable writing for strings, featuring a musical expression moving in-between quiet sounds and stormy moods."

Actualitatea Muzicala, Bucharest, July 1993


"... during the first international show of the young musicians of Romania, the concert produced by the student composers turns out to be inventive in its evolution, content, and substance. And to conceive of a show with such an anti-conformist view, is already departing from the routine and questioning the old academic rules."

Le Monde de la Musique, Paris, June 1991