Critical Reviews"Canadian Composer Scores with Motets"
Very rarely does something come along in the arts which points the way to a new vision and direction, but still remains accessible and flows with integrity and beauty.
Canadian composer Nick Peros has done just that with his Motets, a new CD of 20 a cappella compositions performed by K-W's Renaissance Singers conducted by Richard Cunningham, a project which was recorded in Kitchener's St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church and supported by local patrons of the arts...
(Peros music) has its roots deeply imbedded into Palestrina, Josquin and Lassus, but there is an edge here which is not found in those earlier works and this makes them anything but copies of the masters' the ingenious integrity of the melodic lines and the surprising chromatic harmonic shifts lift them (the Motets) far above the ordinary. And careful listening reveals their hidden complexities.
Some are abundant in canonic imitation--Love and Faithfulness and Blessed is the Man, for example. But this is no student attempt at counterpoint, for the modulations are skillful, unexpected yet subtle, and the sound flows without hindrance.
It would be easy to dismiss the two-part motets as nothing more than contrapuntal exercises, but the compelling sound, the ingenious chromaticism and developed melodic lines speak of the genius behind the beauty. And I in Righteousness is compelling, and The Lord Is My Shepherd can stand yet another telling.
The two five-part motets--All Glorious is the Princess and Veni Sponsa Christi--are remarkable in their texture, surprisingly thick without being ponderous. It is in these that Peros demonstrates his full powers as composer; for the part movement is smooth while the progressions are complex...
(Harry Currie, The Record, Kitchener, September 23 1999, reviewing Nick Peros--Motets)
"Peros is certainly a composer to be reckoned with, if these settings of sacred texts, mainly psalm verses, are any indication. He understands the world of choral polyphony very well indeed and applies his understanding with imagination and taste, and to considerable effect. I would go so far as to say that no lover of choral music should be without this CD..."
(Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen, November 20 1999, reviewing Nick Peros--Motets)
"These pieces are polyphonic and each part is very independent. Sometimes a voice will make an unexpected chromatic shift that at the same time seems very logical and very energizing. Above all, Peros' music is beautiful. It is beautiful, however, without being sentimental, saccharine or trite, embracing the whole contemporary human experience... the music of these twenty motets, all settings of texts from the Psalms, reflects a contemporary sensibility, no mere imitation of bygone work, but something fresh and new."
(Allan Pulker, The Wholenote, September 1999, on Nick Peros--Motets)
"The icy opening work was Northern Lights by Ontario composer Nick Peros. The chill it sends is the one we in Saskatchewan often experience in watching our familiar auroran dance of the heavens. Orchestral intensities alternate with stillnesses that crackle with the harp, chimes and triangle. The composition is in three sections that trace the buildup and explosion of the lights, then their eventual fading. It comes over as a clear tone poem which, even without its title, can convey the correct image. Northern Lights (is an ) electrically charged, exciting work..."
(David Green, The Leader-Post, Regina, reviewing Northern Lights)
"Nick Peros' Northern Lights is far more complex (than the previous work on the program). It's music for a modern dance ballet depicting the Northern Lights and achieves great expressive subtlety moving from the light-hearted frolic of the awakening lights to the full majesty of the Dance of Colors with complete conviction. It was a work of texture, layers of color... and rhythmic shiftings..."
(Hugh Fraser, Hamilton Spectator, November 8 1994, reviewing the World Premiere of Northern Lights)