[T]he 24-minute concerto [epitaphios threnos] turned out to be a piece worth hearing, with a distinctive musical character and an emotional communicativeness. [B]y drawing his material from late-7th and early-8th century Byzantine chants by St. Andreas of Crete, he [Piotr Grella-Możejko] also chose a means of thematically unifying its nine short movements. The solo instruments… were treated as extensions of the orchestra rather than as subjects for virtuoso showcasing, with a sad lyricism dominating most of the movements. Although the music could be dissonant, its vocal inspiration clearly informed most of the writing, with a sustained ecclesiastical-sounding chord bringing the concerto to a close. The titles of many pieces wind up seeming arbitrary. The title Lamentations fits this piece perfectly.
William Littler, THE TORONTO STAR
Piotr Grella-Możejko’s composition [TrancePaining (Black Wings Has My Angel) – String Quartet No.3] is a tour de force of perpetual motion…. To get it, one has to imagine Philip Glass riding on the Wabash Cannonball rewriting Khatchaturian’s Sabre Dance for string quartet and locomotive.
Stanley Fefferman, SHOWTIME MAGAZINE
…the concert [of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra] demonstrated the independence and vitality of an inspired and at the same time expansive Canadian avant-garde [including] Contra tempus by Piotr Grella-Możejko, a serial piece, which begun with a succession of powerful tutti chords and then – through a gradual evolution of softening instrumental landscape – finally breathed out in a festive tonal maestoso distantly reminiscent of Bach.
Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, NEUE MUSIKZEITUNG