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a dizzying variety of styles ... that one can almost certainly find something to enjoy..." From a review of the CD "Chamber Music by Igor Korneitchouk," p. 120 of the July/August 2009 issue of American Record Guide: |
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"Igor Korneitchouk attributes his aggressive eclecticism both to a 'diverse musical universe' and the 'atomization' of modern media. From the austere spookiness of the 1980 'Splinters of a Shattered Space' for cello and piano to the amiable tunefulness of the 2002 'Song and Dance', these pieces jump restlessly from one style to another, held together by an emphasis on the intensity of the moment. (It's not surprising to learn that Korneitchouk got an NEH to study jazz following his classical training.)
"This album includes a spare but playful musical word game, 'New Scrabble', and a rather brittle musical portrait of the 'Phoenix' rising from its ashes. My favorites are the seven evocative 'Impressions of Maine' for solo violin, written when the composer was 19 on a family vacation, and a charming, strutting exercise in syncopation from 'Song and Dance' called 'Cutting the Rug'. The performers get through their daunting, varied assignments with aplomb." -- Jack Sullivan |
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From a review of the CD "The Virtual Performer," p. 137 of the November/December 2001 issue of American Record Guide: |
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"Titled The Virtual Performer, this program of music by Spanish emigre Igor Korneitchouk, who teaches at San Diego Mesa College, exemplifies an important trend: the mixing of computer-generated sound with the real thing. The detailed notes by Ray Cole insist that the composer's Diskclavier [sic], an acoustic grand piano with computer plug, is actually in the tradition of the Gershwin player piano; it simply offers more options. The Cagean 'Worms in the Flower Garden', for example, allows the composer to tinker with the innards of the instrument as a computer plays the keyboard; frenetic layers of sound such as 'Three Brothers' drive along much faster and with greater density than a real pianist could because a computer transcends human limitations.
"All this may be to the composer's advantage, but the listener still has to face the music, whatever the medium. Korneitchouk writes with facility in such a dizzying variety of styles -- tonal, serial, minimalist, and much else -- that one can almost certainly find something to enjoy here. His style is as virtual as his method. My favorites are the opening pieces: 'Fanfare', 'Locrian Invention', and 'Plastic Sonata'. They have an appealing innocence and charm. Also pleasant is 'Prelude and Variations', a computer-assisted riff on Bach's C-major Prelude, presenting Bach as the first great minimalist. The real marimba, trumpet, and guitar of Steven Schick, Edwin Harkins, and George Svoboda contribute a human dimension to the work's color and sense of fun. Still, even these acoustic instruments sound weirdly glassy and mechanical -- surely a deliberate blurring of the virtual and the actual. 'Critical Velocity' then takes the Bachian experiment a step further, with a computer-driven solo piano offering its own variations on the same prelude, but at a hyper speed possible only through a computer. Although the notes don't say so, 'Protean Flux', written directly for computer sequence, sounds a great deal like the finale of The Planets: it too is appealing and inventive. Other works are less winning, especially those employing the post-serial bleeps and burps of an exhausted avant-garde. These sound just as acrid and arid on computer as on acoustic instruments.
"For the most part, the computer serves as an invaluable tool, as the composer describes it. 'In the Kitchen at Night', a portrait of Korneitchouk's refrigerator going on and off at night, is sufficiently weird and surreal to suggest a new direction, perhaps toward a world where the computer will be more than a mere vehicle." -- Jack Sullivan |
From a review of Short Circuits (Volumes I & II) from the CD "Dedications to János Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter: Works for Two Violins," p. 243 of the January/February 2001 issue of American Record Guide: |
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"The earliest piece [on this CD] is dated 1995, so here we are at the cutting edge for violin duos.... They are pleasant and attractive duos. Igor Korneitchouk, born in Madrid, living here, specializes in prepared violin: his tiny pieces are almost more sound than notes, handled with a good sense of dramatic timing.... The two violinists seem to enjoy the sound-effects as much as the music, and their enthusiasm is infectious." -- David W.Moore |
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From a review of the concert at Lincoln Center, New York (that included the premiere of The Disqualification of Harry Semantix as Trial Juror for East County); in the article "DATELINE NEW YORK: Creative forces stirring on many fronts" from The Ukrainian Weekly, April 2, 2000, No. 14, Vol. LXVIII: |
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"In its March 13 concert at Alice Tully Hall, the New York Chamber Symphony included the premiere of a mischievously titled quasi-concerto for saxophone and orchestra by composer Igor Korneitchouk, who is of part-Ukrainian ancestry (his grandfather was Ukrainian). Mr. Korneitchouk, who says that the idea for "The Disqualification of Harry Semantix as Trial Juror for East County" germinated from his being disqualified as a potential juror for answering honestly during jury selection, explored the concepts of truth and lie musically in his composition. Born in Madrid, the composer lives in Encinitas, Calif." --Helen Smindak
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