from: NRC Handelsblad, december 13 - 2004
by: Jochem Valkenburg

Also Double Smooth Disaster by Edward Top was sounding powerful. The work slowly grows up from dreamlike quietness by beaten and bowed vibraphone tones. Large is the impact of the following fast and tinseling section. Yet in quietness lies the true virtuosity of the composition.

Edward Top with composition Marble Sparks winner of the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize

from: NRC Handelsblad, december 13 - 2004
by: Jochem Valkenburg

Three pieces, which were nominated for the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize, were performed this Sunday. The winning work Marble Sparks by Edward Top starts off when the orchestra musicians are still tuning up. The conductor appears and gives the beat, shaping order into this chaos. The composition skillfully manoeuvres in-between improvisational colour Hubble-bubble and more co-ordinated stillness.

from: Trouw december 13 - 2004
by: Kees Arntzen

It became clear that younger composers especially choose for lines and colours. It was for that reason and because of a well built up form that that Edward Top won the Henriëtte Bosmans-prize.

Most Beautiful Bird of Paradise

from: de Telegraaf, November 14 2003
by: Bêla Luttmer

In the Amsterdam concerthall Paradiso, the premiere of Edward Top’s commissioned work Most Beautiful Bird of Paradise was performed. In this work the bird only appears in its title. But the melodic lines reached out for the skies with a harmonious song of the accordeon and violins, joined in with the flute and trumpet. Dull drones of the bassdrum avoided the piece to result into a frenzy of sweetness and during the finale the composition had the ‘Most Beautiful Bird’ explode in shrill, high tones.
Dutch composer Top (1972) is a versatile man. He doesn’t hold back using the grand, romantic gesture and also far beyond Holland’s borders he is getting attention. Two months ago he won the Martirano Award at the university of Illinois in the US for his first stringquartet. His sense of timbres and surprising correlations between instruments were very much appreciated in Paradiso.

First String Quartet

from: the Urbana News-Gazette, September 19 2003

URBANA- A Dutch composer has won the seventh annual Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award at the University of Illinois.
Edward Top of Aalten in the Netherlands will receive $1,000 and a performance of his winning composition, String Quartet, by the UI Graduate String Quartet at the Martirano Award Concert at 7:30 p.m. Sept.24 at the Krannert Center for the performing arts.
Top will be present for the concert, and a reception for him will follow. Top began playing the violin at age 8. From 1990 to ’99, he attende the Rotterdam Conservatory, where he graduated with honors. Top describes his String Quartet as being inspired by the "haunting poetic beauty" found in the paintings of Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch.

The Overwhelming Blankness of the Ultimate Meaninglessness of Tragedy

Gaudeamus Musicweek started with lots of uproar
From: NRC Handelsblad- September 3 1996
by: Ernst Vermeulen

Soprano Ingrid Kapelle came running and screaming in the AGA concerthall last Monday, when actor Fred van der Hilst described the terrors of the electric chair. That was how horrorcomposer Edward Top acted as some kind of snake, mesmerizing listeners as frightened little bunnies. (…) One didn't have to guess what 24 year old Edward Top was aiming for. He was definitely the most ambitious composer heard (and seen!) with his composition The Overwhelming Blankness of the Ultimate Meaninglessness of Tragedy for soprano, actor and two ensembles . Lyrics of Borges and Paz showing a vision of dying larded with a spark of hope, are supported by the first ensemble consisting of soft winds and strings, prettily and originally instrumentated, until the mood completely changes, as described above.

Expressive young guard achieves first goal in Gaudeamusweek
From: Trouw- September 5 1996
By: Kees Arntzen

The Overwhelming Blankness of the Ultimate Meaninglessness of Tragedy of Edward Top, inspired by a silkscreen of Andy Warhol, was considered as the biggest surprise of the evening. In a minimal theatrical framework, Top uses a female singer and an actor reciting texts about an execution and a vision of the hereafter. Within twenty minutes, the piece develops from a slow and lyrical beginning to a dramatic and expressive concentration of the contradiction of both experiences.
It is striking to notice how a number of these composers like Edward Top express themselves again 'expressively'. They realize that verbally as well as in their musical approach.

Pianotrio ...and he wept bitterly

From: de Volkskrant March 19 2002
By: Frits van der Waa

Then the pianotrio …and he wept bitterly of Edward Top (1972) is way more exciting. After a rough neo-expressionistic opening, Top stretches out the musical tension further and further. Maybe that asks much of the listener, but at least Top has the guts to stick out his neck real far.

The Stillpoint

Switch on to a new musical universe- The study of composition in the Netherlands
From: Key Notes- spring 1995
By: Emile Wennekes

Crammed between pieces by Stockhausen, Scelci and the Russian, Nikolay Ubokhov, the works of a number of Rotterdam Conservatory students (of Klaas de Vries and Peter-Jan Wagemans) are presented to a selective audience at Rotterdam's Unie and Amsterdam's IJsbreker.
(…) The quality of the work is enormously varied. Edward Top's piece seems the most evocative. His The Stillpoint, transports the listener through delicate atmorpheres for a good fifteen minutes. Without loosing his grip on the overall line, he wryly contrasts àla Zappa mass-media banalities with mystical patches. It is scored for the not so traditional, but neither shockingly new setting of violin and vibraphone. (…)

Silk Execution

Music Biennal Rotterdam started
From: NRC Handelsblad October 18, 1999
By: Ernst Vermeulen

Most evocative I thought was Silk Execution by Edward Top, who, following the style of Rihm, has five trombones played clusterchorales, placed against and mixed with percussion as in Chinese opera, colored by a harp, piano and harmonium. Slow clusters are developed diatonically, fast staccatoclusters chromatically. Especially the haronium mixes well with the low brass, the percussion is a little overdone, but near the end a force of direction is inevitably achieved in this ritual.

Why Elsewhere?

Enjoying the magic of the first performance -Nominated for the Composers-prize of the Netherlands Music Days
From: Utrechts Nieuwsblad- December 9, 2002
By: Winand van de Kamp

Edward Top is a performing musician himself. Nevertheless Top hasn't made it easy for the orchestra musicians: "My music is quite complex. But I'm doing that on purpose: I want the musicians to sit at the tip of their chairs. Only then the energy I'm aiming for is achieved".

Symphony Golden Dragon

From: De Volkskrant- June 4, 2002
By: Frits van der Waa
The Symphony Golden Dragon of Edward Top is a piece which is made with a lot of courage, fantasy, and knowledge of orchestra business.