“Symphony No. 1, “Concordia”. With a vibrant sound world, Moussa whirls together passionate harmonic progressions with thoughtful melodic development. Thick, powerful orchestration showcases Samy Moussa’s keen sense of temporal awareness, and sparse injections of subtle colors allow the weight to not become overbearing. The opening of the second movement begins with breathtaking contrast, as the horns and tubular bell slowly separate in pitch, revealing beating patterns and eventually become integral to the harmonic structure. Moussa displays an audacious sense of time, often extending chords and harmonies past expectation–the subversion of which proved worthwhile when the desired contrast was met with a greater sense of relief.”
Kevin Baldwin / I Care if you Listen / February 15, 2018
Samy Moussa’s Nocturne was a fine addition to the docket, an orchestral adagio that inescapably suggested a twenty-first century Wagner, replete with astonishingly intense low register sonorities.
David Gordon Duke / Classical Voice North America / January 24, 2018
“Samy Moussa’s strikingly original “Crimson” revealed a young composer and conductor from Montreal with a gleeful sense for metallic orchestral color and shocking harmony.”
Mark Swed / Los Angeles Times / September 4, 2015
“The surprise hit of the evening was Nocturne by Samy Moussa. Nagano has gone to this Montreal-born resident of Germany repeatedly. No wonder. He employs tonality coherently rather than decoratively, and his orchestration (here touched by Mahler) is likewise harnessed to a deeper meaning.”
Arthur Kaptainis / Musical Toronto / Mary 14, 2015
“Moussa is a dazzling colorist, and his A Globe Itself Infolding glowingly immerses the organ in an ocean of orchestral sonorities.”
Mark Swed / Los Angeles Times / March 23, 2015
“Samy Moussa, whose Crimson was a purple patch of intoxicated harmonies and noisy energy”
Tom Service / The Guardian / August 26, 2015
“La maîtrise de l’orchestre dont fait preuve le jeune compositeur impressionne et séduit, dans les textures plus transparentes qu’il fait naître progressivement, avant d’investir les registres graves, dans un cheminement narratif qui maintient continuellement la tension de l’écoute.”
Michèle Tosi / ResMusica / September 2, 2015
“The opener was an OSM commission, Samy Moussa’s Nocturne, the most recent of five commissions Moussa has received from Kent Nagano. The tonal piece is moody with an underlying sense of threat that rises to the surface in a sort of strangled outburst. The 10-minute piece avoids the pitfall of over-busyness that so many short works succumb to. It turned out to be a good choice for an evening in which the final work also expresses a dark moodiness. Samy Moussa turns 31 this year. Aside from being one of the most interesting Canadian composers active today he has a vital, focused conducting style.”
Michael Johnson / ConcertoNet.com / May 13, 2015
“Peter Ruzickas „Aulodie“ für Oboe und Kammerorchester, bereits 2011 entstanden und nun bei IMPULS zu erleben in einer großartigen Aufführung mit Albrecht Mayer (Berliner Philharmoniker) und der Staatskapelle Halle unter Samy Moussa.”
Michael Jenne / neue musikzeitung / December 10, 2013