"The second movement, “Relishing the Texture and Composition of the Delicacies” explores longer tones of different timbres, from the purest high note to the instrument’s flatulent bass. It was at this point in the concert that I questioned why I ever go to concerts by established ensembles, younger performers being often more inventive, daring and downright humourous...
....The final movement, “The Irrepressible Urge to Gorge,” represented Brillat-Savarin’s least favourite diner, one who cannot resist overeating and getting drunk. Anderson played higher and louder in between great big gulping sounds. I imagined the waiter in the Monty Python scene (“but it is wafer-thin”) as Anderson finished with a series of tiny toots and then a burp."
Matthew Lorenzon on The Physiology of Taste, Partial Durations – December 2014
"Andrew Aronowicz's Strange Alchemy with deft orchestration brought a touch of the contemporary to this program"
Clive O'Connell, The Age – April 2014
"The piece is an auditory realisation of the metamorphosis of matter between gas, liquid and solid. A slowly bowed cymbal breaks the opening silence, and becomes the representation of the gas, interspersed by droplets of melody from muted brass. A highlight was the delicate marching celesta, underscoring the flickering melodic material now taken over by the chamber-sized string section. Occasionally the full ensemble surged to their full dynamic range, but eventually the music slipped away as mysteriously as it began."
Sascha Kelly on Strange Alchemy, Limelight Magazine – April 2014