"Mr. Moravec’s response is that of a painter. Scored for six soloists and a large chorus and orchestra, the oratorio becomes a vast canvas filled with vivid depictions of nature; chiaroscuro changes in lighting; and individual characters fixed with quick, confident brush strokes… For the most part the music is tonal, and Mr. Moravec’s writing for the solo singers aims for an unaffected simplicity…The musical depiction of the outbreak of the storm was nothing short of terrifying."

"Moravec’s darkly tonal music captured these stories in powerful dramatic detail in this expansive, 70-minute work."

"Seasonally enough, last night I attended Blizzard of Voices, an oratorio by Paul Moravec (husband to your friend and mine Wendy Lamb). While you might have thought the warm and woody Jordan Hall would have been an oasis in Boston's horrible weather, Moravec's commemoration of the 1888 Schoolhouse Blizzard was terrible--in the exactest sense--in its evocation of the wind and cold and terror and death that swept over the Great Plains and killed more than two hundred people."

"The composer says in his booklet notes that ‘a well-balanced mixed chorus singing perfectly in tune strikes me as the most beautiful and resonant of sonorities’. The New England Conservatory Concert Choir and Chamber Singers give him all that and, with expert work from the orchestra and earnest, generally splendid work from the soloists, give a passionate and committed performance."

Lasting more than an hour, it is a major, unusual addition to the choral repertory.