Textura Magazine recommends Dominic Cheli, Adam Millstein, James Conlon, and the Colburn School’s Shapeshifter: Music of Erwin Schulhoff recording:
“The single-movement Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra towers over the other pieces for sheer length. Not surprisingly, the twenty-one-minute work ventures down multiple stylistic avenues during its journey, with the piano soloist and two chromatic motifs operating as key unifiers. While a somewhat foreboding intro makes for a dramatic and tension-filled start, one can’t help but be impressed by the conviction with which Cheli and the RVC Ensemble execute their parts. Their impassioned rendering of Schulhoff’s material is compelling, regardless of whether the music’s blustery, becalmed, or mysterious. Cheli distinguishes himself throughout, never more so than during the sostenuto section that arises midway through and the poise he demonstrates in his solo. The ensemble rejoins him for a jazzy, high-energy episode sprinkled with cowbell, anvil, car horn, sleigh bells, castanets, and torpedo siren, after which another shift sees the music become a plaintive violin-and-piano duet before a robust full-ensemble finale.…
The animation of the opening work carries over into the Five Pieces for String Quartet in an irreverent take on the dance suite that in moments invites comparison to Bartók.… Cheli returns for The Suite for Piano, Left Hand, his commanding realization of its five parts spread across nineteen engrossing minutes. Whereas the graceful “Preludio” and euphonious “Air” sparkle, “Zingara” dances mischievously and the “Finale” raucously. Following that bravura solo display, the pianist partners with Millstein for Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, the work on the release that most closely adheres to standard classical form. …
However much Shapeshifter warrants commendation for its extra-musical aspects, it holds up solidly on purely musical grounds. Any listener unfamiliar with the project’s historical background would still come away from the release well-satisfied by its musical offerings. Were the composer alive to hear it, he no doubt would be thrilled by what Conlon, Cheli, and the RVC Ensemble have created.”
—Ron Schepper, Textura
