"[A] new piece destined for a secure place in the chamber-music world...shows every sign of being artistically important...The second movement, in particular, of Ludwig's The Catherine Wheel promises to speak for thesorrows of this generation much the way Barber's Adagio for Strings did for another era...[it] recalls the chant and echo of church music, though not in a heavy-handed way.  It is more spiritual than religious, and its

mournful, delicate language suggests at once peace and sorrow." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"As is usual in New York Youth Symphony programs, there was a new work from a young composer. David Ludwig's Ares was the chosen score, well selected for its expressive directness."                                   

-- The New York Times

“A Musical Up-and-Comer” -- The New Yorker

”David Ludwig is only the latest composer to set loose this puzzle on audiences, as he did Wednesday night in the premiere of his soulful new set of songs, From the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The piece is in every way well-crafted, and that only begins to describe how wonderfully satisfying it is.

The Ludwig songs, commissioned for this tour, are a great calling card not only because they are a workout for the instrumentalists and fine mezzo Allison Sanders, but also because Ludwig speaks both to the school's history (his grandfather was Rudolf Serkin, pianist and onetime Curtis director) and, as a member of the school's composition faculty, to its current stock of talent.

In both rhythm and harmony, Ludwig references the Middle East, but subtly. These Persian poems were popularized in the West by Edward Fitzgerald, whose "transmogrification" captured a mid-19th-century taste for the exotic with fantastical editions in gold-stamped leather bindings. Ludwig is more restrained than many of the work's illustrators. The chamber-ensemble part - scored for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet in C, trombone, violin, double bass, and percussion - favors spareness with exposed gestures like a lovely and mysterious upward lick for clarinet and an astringent bass solo. There are some quarter tones, whose grating tension a lesser ensemble would not be able to make obvious.

A moving bit of theater, both visually and aurally, comes at the end of the piece when some of the instrumentalists strike variously pitched crotales, the antique cymbal brought to wide attention by Debussy at the end of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The delicate punctuation arrives as the mezzo sings: One thing is certain, that Life flies/ One thing is certain and the Rest is Lies/The Flower that once has blown forever dies. Those listeners who come for the piece will hear a composer with something urgent to say.” 

- Philadelphia Inquirer

”David Ludwig’s new Double Concerto, written for and performed by VSO Music Director Jaime Laredo on violin and Sharon Robinson on cello, engendered real excitement in the audience…This is a substantial work, exciting and moving,

adding yet another double concerto to the repertoire written for Laredo and Robinson.”

"After hearing [Beethoven 9], conducted by Music Director Jaime Laredo on Saturday at the Flynn Center, it is all the more remarkable that the excitement of David Ludwig's Cello Concerto remains...The Cello Concerto is a major work, and can truly be described as exciting, as well as passionate and tender...Ludwig's musical language is modern and sophisticated but, judging by the audience's enthusiasm, easily accessible. In fact, despite its complexity, Ludwig's Cello Concerto is a major work that was a real pleasure to hear... "

"The VSO Chorus...opened the program with the world premiere of Ludwig's The Choir.  With a salty but refined language, the chorus alternated between grandness and tender contrapuntal exposition. The effect of this 10-minute-plus a cappella work was attractive, inviting and even intriguing."

– Times Argus

The most intriguing work on the program was the first performance of "Flowers in the Desert" by David Ludwig...

Ludwig based the toughly haunting five-movement, seven-minute work on an incident in which a man unnecessarily killed a boy robbing his store, was indicted for murder, but was treated as a hero. "Flowers" opens with a haunting lyrical clarinet against stark sounds from the viola and piano in the first movement, "Blue with all Malice." It works through a series of vivid episodes that don't so much describe the events as reflect them and the feeling they evoke. Although much of the harmonic language is complex, the work is accessible and compelling. Ludwig couldn't have asked for more sympathetic performers. David Shifrin, one of the world's finest clarinetists, was joined by violist Hsin-Yun Huang and pianist Jeewon Park.   – Times Argus

"Ludwig's Radiance, a serenade for solo oboe and strings, is tonal in character, nocturnal in mood, and subtly eventful in coloration...The solo oboe introduces long-breathed themes, which are echoed and amplified in string parts that sounded mellow in sonority...[the soloist] ably voiced the yearning, poetic quality of Ludwig's writing."  – Richmond Times-Dispatch

Cellist Soo Bae joined pianist Reiko Uchida in David Ludwig's Scenes from Childhood. For this virtuosic compendium of angular melodies and effects that suggested sirens, march rhythms and a touch of Messiaen, Bae shrugged off the piece's difficulties and emphasized its shapeliness and warmth.  – The Strad

"[Ludwig’s] setting of Kaddish sounded well in the voice.  Of the three works, Ludwig’s by its very nature balanced the forces best.  In fact, adding this piece to another piece that he premiered through the VSO, his cello concerto, has given the VSO several pieces of wonderful music that can very easily bear repetition. " -- Vermont Times

"Ferocious energy colored by theatrical turns marks the ensemble's [eighth blackbirdπs] approach. Its composers exploit that, asking intense rhythmical joining among flute and clarinet, cello and violin, piano and percussion. Ludwig offered a softly transparent, but no less intricate, set of intimate scenes. Molly Ann Barth's alto flute proposed the mood; distant bass chimes and shadowy string sounds shaped the succinct scenes. The players moved about, facing each other, violinist Matt Albert kneeling, and at one point all facing cellist Nicholas Photinos. Like a haiku, the piece ended in intense quiet, a metallic chime just audible. "  – Philadelphia Inquirer

"...A compositional voice, with a sense of integrity and security of craftsmanship. David Ludwig's NightVision was an ephemeral, dark-hued tone poem full of hazy, suspended tone clusters in the strings and a slow, languorous solo violin part weaving through the clouds."

– New Jersey Star Ledger

"Ludwig is a substantial composer already, and he is headed toward a significant career as a composer...The Concerto [for cello and orchestra] is a major work.  Once it is available to cellists, it will have many performances."   

– Vermont Times

David Ludwig’s delicately elegiac Flowers in the Desert opened the program in its world premiere performance, with violist Hsin-Yun Huang, clarinetist David Shifrin, and pianist Jeewon Park. The spare spaces of its sonic landscape prompted an audible audience exhale when the last, redemptive, prayer-like note decayed and floated plaintively to meet the the raised ceiling of the Elley Long Music Center

Flowers’ feel and gently repeated note patterns reminded me of the understated beauty in Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel, though Flowers‘ inspiration is rooted in much weightier source material...Whatever your opinion on the facts of the incident, the senselessness, sheer brutality and fundamental human failure evident in every aspect of the situation are inarguable, and provide the potent departure point for Flowers’ fragile emotional center. -- World of Music

”Set to fifteen of Khayyam’s quatrains, Ludwig has cast the Persian poetry into a cycle of five songs for mezzo-soprano and Soldat chamber ensemble, which forms an arc roughly reflecting the life cycle.  Alternately acerbic and mystical, Ludwig’s music fits Edward Fitzgerald’s precise, graceful translations, like a well-tailored glove. The five settings are gratefully written for voice, and the scoring is brash, piquant, edgy and mercurial as the poetry requires.” – The Miami Herald

"Ludwig's The New Colossus began in sober unison.  As harmonies evolved to greater dissonance, the singers became more expressive, an effective dramatic device."

– The Virginian Pilot

" Artistic collaborations create a powerful and unique synergy. But the process requires not only intense artistic vision, but the willingness to be adaptable.

A perfect example of that collaboration occurred last Sunday evening, as the Network for New Music and Group Motion Dance Theater rehearsed two works for the first time. Commissioned composer David Ludwig saw his new piece, Lamentations, expressed by 10 dancers, who were finally hearing his music live... "

– Philadelphia Daily News

”Written especially for the tour, Ludwig's "From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," for mezzo-soprano and the same instrumental ensemble that Stravinsky used in "Soldier's Tale," sets texts by the famous 11th and 12th century Persian poet. Ludwig's music is both accessible and sophisticated, painting words and moods with touches of Persian folk music and funky grooves and instrumental sound effects.” – The Orange County Register

"[A] most musically sophisticated work was Ludwig's Radiance for oboe and strings...  This most attractive work set the expressive oboe solo against the more discordant strings in an intriguing and attractive manner."

– The Times Argus

"Ludwig's composition is a winner.  Violin, viola and cello create a foundation of dark harmonies and minimalism-flavored rhythmic motion to launch the first movement; the oboe sings lyrically above the action.  Soulful melodic lines, feathery accompaniment patterns and imitative devices enrich the second movement. The energetic finale is punctuated by slashing string chords and brilliant oboe riffs." – Baltimore Sun

"Not so with David Ludwig's 12-movement Dante Microludes score, influenced by the explosive miniatures of Gyorgy Kurtag but less dense and unafraid of prettiness. The seemingly unending scale ascent in the 10th movement, for one, was thoroughly entrancing."

– Philadelphia Inquirer

"And I loved the gentle Ave Maria by David Ludwig with its frugal take on Palestrina-- style choral homophony."

– Robin Holloway, The Spectator

”Standing at the helm of the orchestra as Laredo played his Stradivarius, Ludwig guided the orchestra through a captivating first movement where a single melodic theme introduced by the soloist was repeated in overlap by the principals. A tremolo in the lower strings made the second movement sound as if submerged under water until Laredo made his way through the texture embarking on a long but reserved solo passage that showed clearly what remarkable talent lay in waiting behind this stunning simplicity. The third movement of Ludwig's Concertino dazzled with more challenging composition for the soloist. "

– The Middlebury Campus

"...David Ludwig's entrancing Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Poems from Antiquity...The poetry found its way into the instrumental writing by giving the clarinet, violins, viola and cello a vocal, reciting quality...Ludwig maintained a judicious balance between the opposing forces of dissonance and sweetness, and the Farewell Symphony fashion in which players left the stage one by one at the end of the work was a deft piece of theater. It was surprising, too, since the absent musicians chimed in a few last chords offstage just when you thought they were gone."

– Philadelphia Inquirer