Silken Rags reviews

From Melinda Bargreen (Classical Music Critic, Seattle Times):

"Silken Rags," Peter Winkler and Dorothea Cook (SR CD-1)
Violinist Dorothea Cook was a familiar figure in Seattle musical circles before her move to New York several years back (she was a member of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, among many other groups). Now fans can hear her in something entirely different: a lovely and inventive disc of genre-bending compositions by her husband, Peter Winkler, a music professor at Stony Brook University. The music, for violin and piano, features the pair in rhythmically complex, harmonically rich music with influences extending from gospel and Caribbean to samba and tango - all performed here with remarkable flair and dash.
(This disc is available at www.Cdbaby.com and www.amazon.com.)

From William Bolcom (Pulitzer-Prize winning composer):

The recent tendency among new music for greater sweetness, after all the clever ugliness of the past decades, has so often resulted in just saccharine. But Peter Winkler's Silken Rags CD is something else entirely. He has always been an ecstatic lyricist, even in his early spikier music, and in our tragic and unsettling age, his music actually makes a listener feel better about life, curing the soul.

A review on Amazon.com:
By Philip David Morgan on March 6, 2005

Anyone looking for an album of "light classics" without the stereo-typical "crossover" stunts (or sound) will do very well to pick up this independently-made album of gentle, humble gems for violin (played by Dorothea Cook) and piano (composer Peter Winkler). Each piece draws on a different influence (be it gospel, Cuban rhythms, or American folk) without getting smothered by it - a testament to the duo's combined talents. This is that rare kind of music that welcomes you into its space and allows you to dwell within it.