REVIEWS

Looking Back

” … pungent lyricism irradiating the music to fine effect: an admirable, concise work.”
[MusicWeb International 2024]

Simplicius CD

Claudio Records has come up with a winner here. The music is involving and interesting, the performances very good and the recording outstanding.

“The pattern of Hawkins’ piece reflects first the comparative pastoral peace of Simplicius’ life, then the growing conflicts in which he was involved and finally an exhausted sort of calm. It works well and like all the pieces makes a valuable addition to the available music for clarinet.”

[Re the ‘In Touch’ trio] “Cello and clarinet work together really well and Hawkins gives us some lovely as well as stimulating sounds. This is a little wonder of a piece.”
[MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL 2020]

‘This richly rewarding release presents music featuring the clarinet by John Hawkins … Simplicius Simplicissimus (2018) is a cogently argued and naturally eloquent single-movement work for clarinet and strings, directly communicative and expertly structured.

The heartfelt and constantly inventive treatment for baritone and clarinet of Edward Lear’s The Dong with a Luminous Nose (2018) is a superb example of Hawkins’s keen ear for setting texts.

Fluent and widely expressive, In Touch, for clarinet, cello and piano (2016) shows the composer’s innate understanding of the importance of meaningful discourse between the instruments in chamber music.

The compact and gloriously melodic Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1969-72) is a fine contribution to the genre and the Concerto for Clarinet and Strings, which also dates from the early 1970s, is a thoroughly delightful piece, lucid and lyrical with an infectiously jazzy finale.

Performances are uniformly excellent and the recording quality is exemplary. Highly recommended. *****
MUSICAL OPINION

‘Once again I found myself fascinated by Hawkins’ writing …’
‘This is a very interesting CD, well worth hearing’
‘All of the performers are excellent.’
ARTMUSICLOUNGE

Sea Symphony

‘… academic complexities do not trouble the ear, which is constantly entertained and alternately assuaged and assaulted by an endlessly fascinating stream of sounds, atmospheric rather than specific in their depiction of the sea in various moods’
MUSIC AND MUSICIANS

Voices from the Sea CD

‘… a stunning song cycle’
THE STRAD December 2003

‘… finely pointing the drama of the texts without recourse to obvious word-painting, and easing into refrains of exceptional beauty.’
THE GUARDIAN

‘… a name to remember … These evocative settings show that Hawkins has the now rare gift of being able to write vocal lines grateful to the voice, where leaping intervals slip naturally and movingly into the lyrical sequence – especially when sung with such intensity and variety of vocal colour as here by Martyn Hill … a highly enticing debut CD for Hawkins.’
GRAMOPHONE May 2004

‘Brilliant … both the vocal writing and string layout were superb.’
H.C. ROBBINS LANDON

‘The whole cycle is a beautifully varied, contrasted, and often moving achievement … magnificent … Hawkins’ sincere, honest and impeccably written music is clearly the work of a distinguished musician who obviously has things to say and who knows how to say them in accessible, communicative terms likely to appeal to larger audiences without ever compromising or writing down to them …’
‘Variations for piano’ is a minor masterpiece in its own right … that should appeal to any pianist willing to add an accessible modern work to his/her repertoire.
Hubert Culot MUSICWEB December ’03

‘What an enterprising CD this is with a great mixture of excellent music’
THE MUSICIAN

‘Excellently crafted … Hawkins’ word setting is superb … The texts, written by merchant seamen … are strikingly direct, and are telling in Martyn Hill’s sympathetic rendering and admirably clear articulation … this collection will give great pleasure to afficionados of 20th century British music.’
CLASSICAL NET

See the full Classical Net review of the ‘Voices from the Sea’ CD . . .

Echoes

‘. . . a wealth of opportunities, readily seized, for economical but effective musico-dramatic gestures…. All make their evocative points in an instant.’
THE OBSERVER

‘Echoes achieves a genuinely moving balance between bathos and emotion.’
CITY LIMITS

Looking Back

‘John Hawkins’ Looking Back is an Orphean piece inspired by the backward glance of the mythical character, its pungent lyricism irradiating the music to fine effect: an admirable, concise work.’
MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL JULY 2024

Fuzon

‘Fuzon is a brilliant work for any programme, 7 mins of very effective and effervescent music. Would urge any quartet to programme’ 
PIATTI QUARTET on TWITTER

‘Well-crafted with an assured economy of gesture, Fuzon is a welcome addition to the repertoire. All four members of the Piatti Quartet were suitably fiery in their response to Hawkins’s forthright but exacting score, tearing into its more vigorous sections with admirable gusto.
TEMPO, April 2013

Stranger, Lover, Dancer

‘Hawkins has a gift for creating miniatures which have a heft and resonance well beyond their modest duration’
MUSICAL OPINION, December 2016

Urizen

‘… a late-twentieth-century musical gem. . . Immensely gratifying musically, the work is idiomatically appropriate for both viola and piano.’
NOTES 2002


‘John Hawkins’ Urizen is a haunting work composed with real passion and lyrical conviction.’
THE MUSICIAN


‘… keen-eared responses to the instrument’s potential for dark utterance through soulfully eloquent melody.’
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE


‘Currently one of my favorite British composers, John Hawkins, a student of Lutyens and Malcolm Williamson, has built an impressive body of work and a solid reputation among British musicians … This piece combines structural rigor – two or possibly three ideas constantly put into new relationships with one another – with a darkly dramatic sensibility.

CLASSICAL NET 2007

Palinode

‘Tautly-argued and endowed with sufficient incident to fuel a piece several times its length, ‘Palinode’ made a strong impression at its first performance…. It is to be hoped that this premiere and subsequent performances will bring Hawkins’s music, with its decided substance and sensibility, the attention it merits’.
TEMPO January 2012

At Two

‘… the two brief movements offer plentiful contrast, with an especially fast moving, even zany second movement to entertain the listener and stretch the performers.’ on A Tale of Two Violas. Meridian CDE84652
MUSICWEB-INTERNATIONAL June 2019

Sonata Serenata

‘Taut and focussed, the Sonata Serenata by John Hawkins exploited different aspects of the flute’s character. The opening movement was songlike and confessional and contrasted an introspective, chromatic idea heard at the outset with more radiant and flowing lines. Opening with an eloquent, free-flowing flute solo, the slow central movement was passionate and insistent, while the waltz-like, jazz-inflected finale began in a mood of nostalgic warmth but soon developed considerable nervous energy and ended with a trenchant, climactic coda. This compact score conveyed worlds of meaning in a single gesture and both players seemed keenly aware of its concentrated expressive power.’
MUSICAL OPINION December 2019

Zoo Tunes

‘… a variety of textures, attractive (but not prosaic) melodies, sophisticated harmonies and a few challenging rhythms.’
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCATION

 

‘… cleverly composed and often unpredictable…. Recommended.’
MUSIC TEACHER MAGAZINE