REVIEWS

On Concerto for Percussion: The Healer:

"...This is an atmospheric and often driving score using four groups of percussion instruments plus the log drum. Full left is a marimba; to the conductor's immediate left are triangles, tubular bells, and other steel things that whir and zing, glass bells, and crotales played with a bow; center stage is the African log drum; to the conductor's right is a set of congas, tam tams, and a foot-actuated wood block; and full right is an array of cymbals and low drums...The heart of this work is conflict, the constant struggle between rhythms found in the natural order of life vs. the manufactured repetitive sounds as might be found in the city. In the end, the natural patterns win. Timothy Adams is so good you don't know how hard the parts are. He is modest and unaffected, smooth with transitions, and on time – a good skill to have if you're going to be a percussionist – and he has impeccable stick technique with hard or soft sticks or mallets – it doesn't matter. The guy is good."
--Classical Voice of North Carolina; July 9, 2006

On Concerto for Oboe: The Clearing:

“Richman's nuanced writing for DeAlmeida captured the touching program of his concerto, namely of a youth finding strength in spirituality, represented by Psalm 23. Gorgeous writing for the oboe treated it as the vocal instrument it is in the hands of a master talent like DeAlmeida. A quietly ravishing oboe vocalese, crafted to inflections of the Hebrew text to the psalm, flowed like milk and honey.”
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; February 17, 2006

"...The writing in Mr. Richman's Oboe Concerto is very well suited to the oboe.  The flowing melodies are very attractive and fit the lyrical and melancholic tendencies of the oboe so nicely.  The technical passages, although difficult at times, seem to fall under the fingers very comfortably.  What a beautiful and alluring addition to the oboe repertoire.  I recommend this captivating composition to everyone.  Bravo Mr. Richman!"
--The Double Reed (Vol. 30, #2); Robert J. Krause

On Dachau Lied:

“…The Holocaust has become one of the most frequently invoked catalysts for composition in the 20th century--and now, beyond. It is also one of the most problematic. The risk of not doing justice to an event of such unbelievable horror must weigh like a heavy stone upon a composer's mind...In some cases, the composers struck a nerve. Lucas Richman's "Dachau Lied" expanded Herbert Zipper's song "Arbeit Macht Frei" into a painfully sarcastic Weillian series of marches, with a narration that followed the example of Schoenberg's "A Survivor From Warsaw."
-- Los Angeles Times; May 1, 2001

On Hanukkah Festival Overture:

"...From massive choral-orchestral works...to impeccably played solo orchestral works...[that included] a lively, ethnically romantic "Hanukkah Festival Overture," the [Reno Philharmonic] concert was as joyous as the season it was designed to honor and enliven."
--Reno Gazette-Journal; Dec. 5, 1999