At the 2007 Darwin Guitar Festival (Town Hall Ruins) the Trio with Rory O'Donoghue
PRESS REVIEWS
"Among the videos, the standout for me is Echoes of the Dunbar by Australian guitarist/composer Richard Charlton. Both the accompanying music and video for this 2006 work are by Charlton. The straightforwardly eloquent images evoke the wreck of the clipper ship 'Dunbar' that foundered below Macquarie Lighthouse in Sydney, Australia in 1857. This wonderful new release is highly recommended!"
A review of the Bosgraaf/Elias disc "Big Eye" by Tim Broege in "American Recorder" (Sept 2007)
"With accomplished guitar soloist Richard Charlton for Tangata de Agosto by Maximo Diego Pujol (the Solar Chamber Orchestra) ventured into modernity . . . a promising effort all round."
Fred Blanks - review "Solar" Chamber Orchestra Concert - North Shore Times (June 2007)
"Richard Charlton is producing some of the most inspired and accessible guitar works of the present era."
Paul Fowles - review of Alan Banks' performance of "Turlough's Ghosts" - Classical Guitar Magazine UK. (March 2005)
"The real gem however, is Richard Charlton's Figure Eight, performed by the Wellington Guitar Quartet. To say Charlton has been on a creative roll in recent years is surely an understatement, his ever growing catalogue of colourful and accessible ensemble works finding a permanent outlet in the repertoire of Australia's and New Zealand's finest."
Review of Owen Moriarty's CD in Classical Guitar Magazine UK. (Jan 2005)
". . . a sombre homage to technology in Australian composer Richard Charlton's Threnody for Chernobyl, a work of spine-chilling drama. She also included Charlton's Kingfisher dances, a joyous distillation of the bush featuring bird calls, frog sounds and all manner of unexpected effects".
Karin Schaupp, Subiaco Theatre Centre, reviewed in the West Australian Today- September 2004
"Richard Charlton's "Surface Tension" is another highly effective piece by one of Australia's most accomplished composers of guitar music. Charlton's use of linking thematic ideas creates a satisfying musical whole . . . . "
Adrian Walter - review of Tim Kain's CD 'Mirrors of Fire' in Sounds Australian, the AMC Journal. (No.63 - 2004)
"The quartet's first commission, Richard Charlton's "Stoneworks", produced the impression of one dazzling instrument, so well are the parts integrated, with sonorous harmonies and ravishing unisons"
John Shand - Sydney Morning Herald, review of "Saffire" concert at the Seymour Centre, Sydney. (July 2, 2003)
The Divine Guitar - "It is one of the most atmospheric pieces for guitar ensemble I have heard in a long time. It is vivid music bristling with ideas and moods...."
Tim Panting (Sydney Guitar Trio recital, Hinde Street Church, London 5th Oct 2001) Classical Guitar Magazine UK December 2001
"One of the most absorbing items on the program was a work by Australian Richard Charlton, "Threnody for Chernobyl" a lovely, elegiac 12 tone piece."
Sarah Bryan Miller (K. Shaupp recital) - St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 1, 2000
"These are just the sort of pieces that make the players say, 'can we do it just once more?' I for one echo that and say, 'please can we have some more?"
John Arran (reviewing "Merengue & Livewire") - Classical Guitar Magazine UK, 2000
"Threnody for Chernobyl by the Australian composer Richard Charlton was a wonderful discovery! . . . . . . . . .It's a probing, emotional composition."
Olin Chism (K. Schaupp recital) - The Dallas Morning News, November 15, 2000
"Undoubtedly the highlight of the book (Australian Guitar Solos) is Threnody for Chernobyl by Richard Charlton. This is an outstanding work. . . . . . .Depending on the price, this piece alone would warrant purchasing the anthology"
Garth Baxter, Guitar Foundation of America "Soundboard" (Winter ed. 1995)
"Three Sentimental Scenes is a work whose title says it all - gently seductive melodies set against a rich and often poignant harmonic backdrop"
Paul Fowles - Classical Guitar Magazine UK, January 1998
"Dust on a Butterfly's Wing, a song cycle from Down Under was also winningly presented, and charms with warm delicate writing"
Manchester Evening News - Craig Ogden and Claire Bradshaw at the Chester Festival, UK 1998
"Richard Charlton's 'Dances for the Rainbow Serpent', is a pictorial and at times cinematic description of a mythical landscape, with swirling harplike sounds and an arpeggiated rainstorm ."
Allan Kozinn - The New York Times, Feb 16, 1993
"Dances for the Rainbow Serpent by Richard Charlton uses harmony imaginatively to entice ear as well as intellect."
Fred Blanks - Northern Sydney Morning Herald, October 10, 1992