"...Sir Colin Davis is a man whose name has become synonymous with exceptional classical music. And after over 50 years with the London Symphony Orchestra, the nuances of performance have become second-nature to him. But audiences were in for a treat Sunday night: the LSO offered audiences a rare opportunity to experience new music by two exceptional young musicians. Part of LSO Discovery’s Young Panufnik Young Composer’s Scheme, Vlad Maistorovici presented his new work Halo, a UK premiere. Conducted by Clemens Schuldt, a young conductor whose energy matched the vibrancy of the music, Schuldt moved with the orchestra to depict various layers of light. From the opening chord, which felt like a sharp burst of light—similar to the sensation one feels when they first emerge out of a dark room—to the pulsating sensations created with the use of timpani and flexatone, the audience felt the emergence of light...”

- bachtrack.com

"...Maistorovici, born in Romania in 1985, and by all accounts a fine violinist as well as a composer, certainly did benefit from the advocacy of the LSO and Clemens Schuldt, who seemed to me to conduct the work as if it were already a classic. (I very much hope to hear more from Schuldt before long.) Halo is in many ways relatively straightforwardly pictorial, opening with a light source (a reference, according to the composer, to Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, Mahler’s First, and Kurtág’s Stele) with musical motion quickly tending towards the halo’s glow. To say that it is pictorial does not mean that it is not tightly organised; far from it, for audible symmetries and reflections abound. Nevertheless, an audience versed in superior film music would at least have some point of entry. It seemed to me that Mahler and Messiaen were obvious points of comparison, whether ‘influences’ or otherwise. Particular things to listen out for – or rather, which one could hardly fail to hear – were a high-lying violin line, prominent tuned percussion, and low bass lines across the various instrumental families. Though Maistorovici did not mention Ligeti, I wondered whether the strings’ swarming was inspired by the Hungarian master. Whatever the ultimate fortunes of the piece – and it is a fool’s game to say too much after a single hearing – this composer is clearly one who already understands the craft of orchestration and who does not fear bold gestures. I suspect that we shall hear more from him."

- Boulezian

"The final piece is by Romanian-born Vlad Maistorovici and is the longest at almost ten and a half minutes. The opening is a tribute, as Vlad says, to “the great tradition of orchestral openings” which to me had something of Nielsen about it. In this case the composer was trying to describe a halo of light. The ethereal quality of the music certainly alludes to it."

- Musicweb International

"A flowing melody with brass and strings opens ‘Halo’ by Vlad Maistorovici (b.1985), full of atmosphere. The brass increase in dominance as the movement gently flows until it increases in complexity and tempo. The brass make an outburst and a gong sounds, whilst there are ruminations in lower strings and the gong sounds again. The music fades before bells introduce a mysterious orchestral sound with slides on strings. The brass, eventually, lead the orchestra upwards again with the sound of bells and percussion, becoming more animated with interjections from woodwind and brass. There is a wonderful swirl of sounds until the music quietens with chimes bringing the piece to an end."

- The Classical Reviewer

"The final piece is Halo, a larger-scale work by Vlad Maistorovici (born 1985) of just over ten minutes. Initially underpinned by a low, sawing bass note the orchestral writing becomes chaotic and includes a glacial passage for far-off percussion to describe the circular band of light itself. The music then builds inexorably, harnessing power."

- Classical Source

"There was as much welly as you could wish for. Understandably, he had assigned the mastery of Maistorovici's Halo to an undertsudy, Clemens Schuldt. It's not a particularly complicated piece but still no doubt benefited from the undivided attention of this young man. Its ebb and flow, most of which takes place in brass, woodwind and percussion, undergirded by a regular arpeggiated beat on strings that both harries and rocks, was reminiscent of Sibelius. A brief languid passage gives way to a faster, more colourful one that brings in snatches of Bartók and Stravinsky but that ultimately fails to shake off the rather suffocating beat, which rang on in the head after the work ended."

- The Arts Desk

About the work:

The word ‘halo’ refers to the circular band of coloured light around a light source, caused by the refraction and reflection of light by ice particles suspended in the intervening atmosphere. Its geometric perfection, ethereal quality and chromatic instability are what the music alludes to, while the inner structure of the piece is a musical speculation on the concept of ‘point within a circle’. The opening’s superimposed octaves are tribute to the great tradition of orchestral openings, coming from Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, through Mahler’s First Symphony to György Kurtág’s Stele.

© 2013 Vlad Maistorovici

Programme note from the 2011 premiere:

Halo is inspired by the optical phenomenon that can be seen around sources of light. This is the concept from which I began my composition and which determined the musical ‘palette’; circularity, instability and intensity soon became key themes. The piece continues my exploration of symmetry as a principle in music, an idea which can be found in my previous work for the LSO, Microkosmos, as well as Annuntiatio and Candence en Espace.

Symmetry determines many aspects of the work: pitch organisation gravitates around an axis (G above middle C) and material is either internally symmetrical or is presented along with its reflection. The opening few seconds depict the emergence of the ‘light source’ and is a reference to Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, Mahler’s First Symphony and György Kurtág’s Stele, all pieces which start with octaves superimposed over several registers, but the music rapidly moves towards the glow of the halo. Material can be distinguished in various layers of colour: octaves in the strings, waves in the woodwinds and symmetrical reflections in the horns. A melody in the cornet emerges like a brief effect of diffraction before the music falls even deeper into the instability of the glow.

The centre of the halo swells: brass here play with bells held high and the music explodes into a dissonant percussion chord. The symmetrical reflections are now heard in the two solo vibraphones (with refractions in the brushed strings), before they melt into a clear band of sound in the lower strings. Slight swells give way to the sudden reappearance of the original halo. The blinding strokes across the tubular bells open a section where the glow is at its most unstable, with reflections whirling across the whole orchestra. A short scherzo follows, generating new chords against a whirling backdrop of timpani and flexatone. Through a reiteration of the opening gesture, the initial chord progression is brought back in muted brass which play towards a climax (the point where the halo appears at its very brightest) erupting under piercing tones from the strings playing behind the bridge, before the halo fades away.

© 2011 Vlad Maistorovici

Discography: