Magnetite, 17th October 2009

Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra/ Mark Heron

'The NPO launched a new concert series with Emily Howard's Magnetite, a piece beautifully scored for orthodox symphony orchestra. Original melodies and counter-melodies traced their glittering paths with mounting animation, until all activity subsided into repose. She was a junior chess champion and studied maths at Oxford. But Howard's music appeals to both hearts and minds.…'

Peter Palmer, Nottingham Post

Magnetite, 6th December 2007

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic / Vasily Petrenko

'…the premiere of Emily Howard’s Magnetite, far from being overshadowed, stood out. This is music much concerned with the elemental and the crystalline, and it explores that region sure-footedly, relishing orchestral colour in the way the best contemporary Nordic composers do, with ear-catching harmonies commuting between the granitic and the silvery. No wonder Petrenko and the orchestra paid Howard the compliment of a finely chiselled, atmospheric performance.'

David Fanning, The Daily Telegraph

'…The evening had begun with the premiere of a ten-minute orchestral piece by the 28-year-old Liverpudlian Emily Howard. She describes Magnetite as a journey inside a crystal: musical material is shaped as though by magnetic fields attracting or repelling each other. It was a clever idea, boldly realised, and its series of shocks and aftershocks seemed happily auspicious.'

Hilary Finch, The Times

'…The world premiere of Liverpool-born Emily Howard’s Magnetite opened the concert. Here was a slow-moving but highly charged piece. She has always been a composer who uses the orchestra to great effect and this was no exception.'

Glyn Mon Hughes, The Daily Post

'…What the 28 year-old has crafted is a strangely beautiful and surprisingly melodious piece. It started with a rumble of kettledrums and a full orchestral blast before conjuring images of a slow sunrise over shimmering salt flats…'

Catherine Jones, The Liverpool Echo