PRESS
‘…At just over an hour’s duration, Two Souls is a sizeable statement, yet such is its fluency and integrity that the overall impression is one of distillation and economy of gesture. […] the colours and textures seemed to evolve naturally out of the unusual performing forces required […] the music conjured up a valid and highly individual sound-world, which unfolded with a powerful sense of inevitability. Not quite a full-blown oratorio, nor yet a bona fide cantata, Two Souls stands apart, sui genesis, as a dramatic and directly communicative religious work of substance and resonance.’
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion Quarterly (review of Two Souls – read full review here)
‘…a fascinating exposé (for four harps, organ, pair of narrators and chamber choir) of the lives of two fourth-century figures […] it is hugely unusual and intriguing, mapping out its highly affecting, intermingled duple story.’
Roderic Dunnett, Church Times (review of Two Souls)
‘…Violin Concerto is of course a time-honoured title. Short this example may be, but there is an epic feel to born-1987 Robert Peate’s writing, which is incident-packed, capricious and emotional, with essentials, including a cadenza, compacted, the music becoming serene and finally vanishing. Vesselin Gellev was the splendid soloist…’
Colin Anderson, Classical Source (Review of Violin Concerto)
‘…Robert Peate’s mini song-cycle of Edward Thomas settings rounded off proceedings in fine style. Will You Come? was initially spirited and joyful, its intermittent hesitations and decelerations mirroring the text’s increasingly agonised permutations of the title, e.g. ‘would you come’, ‘would you have come’, ‘if you come’, etc. The central Interval was a hushed and introspective nocturne, affectingly wistful in this focused premiere performance. The cycle concluded with an ardent treatment of The Lofty Sky, which included three slower, more reflective sections, remote and detached, featuring a speaking soloist over sustained choral chords. The closing pages seemed to be heading for a measured ending, but the final flourish was an uplifting reminder of the bold,
ascending scalic figure in the opening bars. Thoughtfully contrasting, yet pleasingly complementary, Robert Peate’s three Edward Thomas settings made a substantial closing item to an inspiring, impressively performed programme.’
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion Quarterly
‘Robert Peate’s haunting three-movement Knucklas Arches was […] veiled, expansive and imposing […] introspective and songlike. Peate’s delicate and painterly paragraphs were sensitively realised in this cogent and satisfying first performance.’
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion Quarterly
‘Robert Peate’s ear-tingling Images, work […] from a RAM student who’s already writing genuine music.’
Geoff Brown, The Times
‘Robert Peate impressed with his technical command and some weird but effective textures, as well as some genuinely lyrical music’
Christopher Gunning, Seen and Heard International (Review of Images – part 1)
‘Robert Peate’s Pearl was an elegiac piece about loss and mourning which embraces reflection and anger. It was moving and transient.’
Edward Clark, Feature Review: 2013 Presteigne Festival of Music and Arts
“Full of telling echoes and resonances […] The contrast between the still, numbed opening paragraphs and the ensuing ornate passages is highly effective and the work’s underlying theme, which is loss and grief, seeps through gaps and reverberations in the material.”
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion (Review of Pearl (II))