Press Echo

CHOIR OF THE SAVED  Op. 2

Heuckes sound follows a  condense and poetic language. The sound moves the boundaries of the audible with a whisper, throwing themselves until the last Fortissimo and ending with a disintegrating effect like dust. This is metaphorically present with Nelly Sachs. Far away from the crudely and simply layered support of Heuckes twelve toned Opus which has a subtle effect on the lyrics. (Westfälische Nachrichten, Münster)

Sometimes hunting the listener and causing Goosebumps to arise on the shoulders, similar to the spoken monotone “The worms of fear are always eating away at us” or the screaming “and wash us away”. (Münstersche Zeitung)

FOUR ORCHESTRA PIECES   Op. 5

Heuckes Orchestra pieces work in the highest and most artistically elaborate quality, from time to time instrumented in a sentimental nature, grinded down into an explosion of sound. (Saarbrücker Zeitung)

A calming yet shaking work which brought the composer a strong round of applause. (Solinger Tageblatt)

HÖLDERLIN-FRAGMENTS Op. 7

The pinnacle of the evening was Stefan Heuckes “Hölderlin-fragments”. A very heartfelt and strongly expressed piece, in a wonderfully musically and structured correspondence to the text layered in miniature songs .... (Ruhr-Nachrichten)

TRIO Op. 11

Heucke is a very expressive Musician that draws inspiration for his newest creations from tradition. Constructively connected with a rich melody, his Trio is in a way almost a farewell to the Romantic genre unloaded in a four sided virtuoso meeting a high demanding challenge. (Westfälische Rundschau)

I. SYMPHONY Op. 12

The audience is deeply impressed and moved by the expressive language of music, indeed you think of Bach’s colourful, scary realistic, closer out of the text developed vision of sound orientation. (Westfälische Rundschau)

... in 65 minutes of music in a plastic and dramatic giant painting which even though it was inspired by religion, seems to spread itself into the humankind like Bach’s big Passions  and Mahler’s Vocal Symphonies. (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung)

QUARTET Op. 16

What you could hear was art full of beauty, full blooded and melon collie. You could take as homage to the Russian soul. He describes it as an alluring, flurried tone surface, in which accordion and string sounds collide with a mixture of harmony. (Neue Ruhrzeitung)

II. SYMPHONY Op. 19

Heucke deeply gets inspired by Platen’s lyrics and sticks to the emotion of the deeply thought words. With a small, but very colourful and cleverly arranged orchestra he turns the feelings and emotions of the poems into a landscape of the psyche. (Westfälische Rundschau)

THE SELFISH GIANT Op. 20

The fairytale music of Stefan Heucke inspired the children’s fantasy. (Berliner Morgenpost)

A nice and accomplished work, that Stefan Heucke didn’t write for “adults” but for young and old children. (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung)

SONATA Op. 23 (a)

The music created in 1995 (…) has been laid out episodic form and developed in his narrative talent, it isn’t afraid of islands of harmony; with no doubt it owns spiritual quality.

But it is the work by Stefan Heucke that is most striking of all, with is dazzling central Variations, full of extraordinary rhythmic ideas and unexpected sounds. (The Gramophone)

QUINTET Op. 25

… but to Heucke neither Schubert’s Idiom nor it’s destruction because of present influence are enough. He rather decomposes the idle from the own musical potential which is practically expressed in this outstanding performance. (Hellweger Anzeiger)

“DER GESANG AUS DER TIEFSTEN HÖLLE” Op. 26

Stefan Heucke embodies these shaken words and thoughts with extreme colour, expressive contrasts and with drama, accentuating the original text bringing it to life. His music can be interpreted as pushing the limit and impressing the listener with an enormous suggestive sound, with ranges from brutality to the romantic. (Westfälische Rundschau)>

It isn’t the Angels who make nice music: it is the tortured souls who are able to create Beauty. (Solinger Tageblatt)

“DIE ORDNUNG DER ERDE” Op. 30

The spectacular premiere took place in the “Gelsenkirchener Musiktheater”- a great success for Heucke. The composer achieves a philosophical cosmos and a captivate interpretation of the ancient rhythm with his theatrical, shimmer of an orchestra. Seldom has a young composer from this generation an understanding and grip of Theatre music like this practically minded artist. (Das Orchester)

With the music of his ballets, Schindowski has shown courage and has produced the extraordinary. But the “Gilgamesh –Epic” from Stefan Heucke turned out to be one of the biggest challenges for him concerning the demanding length. The end result has a very touching effect. (Recklinghäuser Zeitung)

“NACHT – URNEN” Op. 32

Theme wise included in the wide stretched curves of rapture until offering inscrutability of an impulsive work. (Solinger Tageblatt)

CONCERTO FOR BASS CLARINET AND ORCHESTRA Op. 33

The bass clarinettist was very much challenged in Stefan Heuckes concert: Supported by from the Orchestra on his right with hot rhythms, from his left gathering inspiration from melodies. (Ruhr-Nachrichten)

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO Op. 38

…He also uses a huge Scale of emotions: the painful death goes through a stormy life crisis and biographical story which through Brahms’ Song “Da unten im Tale” (Down that Valley) yearns and searches for comfort. (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung)

Easy to understand, ever changing this is how all amazing music should represent itself. (Remscheider Generalanzeiger)

DAS FRAUENORCHESTER VON AUSCHWITZ. Op. 47
Pressespiegel der Uraufführung vom 16.09.2006 in Mönchengladbach

Heucke's score continues the tradition of Britten and Shostakovich, with essentially tonal roots and weighty statements alternating with delicately lyrical passages. Each character has a clear musical profile and the music played in Auschwitz is quoted liberally and to good effect. (…) Ever since Theodor Adorno's claim that ``writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,'' the subject of Holocaust art has been a fraught one. Heucke's opera won't end the debate. But it does help to highlight a story that must be told. (Shirley Apthorp, Bloomberg TV)