Review of the premiere on 19 January 2012 in Theater Erfurt, performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra Erfurt; conductor: Walter E. Gugerbauer. Soloists: Andión Fernández (soprano), Reinbert Evers (guitar) and Matias de Oliveira Pinto (‘cello):

"Jeffrey Ching – born in 1965 in the [former] Spanish-American colony of the Philippines, the son of Chinese Buddhist parents – presents himself in his musical work as a wanderer between cultures. The pieces of the composer, who in 2009 won the Audience Prize for "The Orphan" in Theater Erfurt, are filled with musical elements of the cultures that influence him. Likewise, the two movements of his "Concerto da Camera" are filled with Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian, but also Lithuanian, musical cultures. For unpracticed listeners, even for those with some characteristic musical quotations of these countries in mind, it turned out to be a demanding task to identify them. Both the string orchestra and the soloists on guitar and cello were given special tasks: Performers are rarely to be seen blowing into the sound holes of their instruments; the entire ensemble was to be heard speaking archaic sounds or playing on the music stands instead of the violins. Jeffrey Ching certainly intended some sort of musical irony here and there, but the serious composer and his virtuoso ability always emerged. Tearing at the strings aroused associations with China. Folksong elements conjured up images of Memel villages. String players knocked percussive Latin American rhythms on their instruments. And there was always a conscious allusion to the music of Bach: counterpoint and polyphony in dissonant and abstracted form. The musicologist always took pleasure in decipherment; the enthusiast of contemporary orchestral music, in the agitation onstage and the musical wink of the creator."

Anne Martin, Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 January 2012