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Reviews

“Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera knocked the music out of the park with a dramatic score that perfectly matched the emotions conveyed by our leading lady.”

Megan Garsied, Total Film

Griselda

“…Working in symphonic tandem with editor Michelle Tesoro, cinematographer Steven Meizler and composer Carlos Rafael Rivera, whose soaring work does more heavy lifting than any TV score this year, Frank approaches each match differently…”

Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter

The Queen's Gambit

“Monsieur Spade is a fascinating study of intrigue and sadness, one that is hugely varied but also cohesive. This is noir scoring like they used to do it, and it’s a real pleasure to hear in a ‘modern’ show.”

Hannah Lamarque, Film Score Monthly

Monsieur Spade

“One of the standout elements of Lessons in Chemistry—no pun intended—is its musical score by Carlos Rafael Rivera. The multi-Emmy-winning Queen’s Gambit and Godless composer brought his signature style to the series, crafting a score that is uncrowded yet full, with beautiful piano and string textures leading the way.

Owen Danoff, Screen Rant

Lessons in Chemistry

“Under the direction of Andrés Baiz, each episode is a cinematic masterpiece, capturing the essence of the era. The attention to detail in set design by Knut Loewe, along with the captivating music by Carlos Rafael Rivera, creates a rich and immersive experience.”

Will Heffernan, Echo Magazine

Griselda

Come for the top-shelf talent involved, stay for the lead performances, crisp photography, and lovely music (courtesy of T Bone Burnett and Carlos Rafael Rivera).

Eddie Strait - The Daily Dot

Godless

“Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera layered a silky yet haunting string melody over the gritty images created by Method Studios, giving the Netflix drama a flair reminiscent of its premium channel competitors.”

Raelyn Giansanti, IndieWire

Godless

“Chupa is a great score that blends warm-hearted children’s fantasy-adventure scoring with a healthy dose of authentic traditional Mexican folk music, and eventually coalesces into a uniquely-pitched but wholly worthwhile variation on a familiar genre… He’s a superb composer with a keen sensibility for great film music, and Chupa just confirms that further.”

Jon Broxton, Movie Music, UK

Chupa

The Queen’s Gambit has one of the most significant soundtracks in recent memory. Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera’s music is tender and melancholic for the most part. The piano and strings nurse Beth Harmon, a fictional chess prodigy who strives to be the world’s best player in the 1960s. Most background scores reveal the rhythm of the scene or the mood of the characters. But this score reacts to Beth like a companion, as if she were a dazzling silent film in need of a voice. Or a religion in need of context. It’s almost…protective of her. But towards the end of the seven-part miniseries, the score morphs into a “main theme”. This theme triggers the end-credit montage. It’s rousing and playful at once – think the title theme of Catch Me If You Can but sharper – which implies that the superpower is psychological rather than physical. It’s the melody of outwitting, outsmarting, outmanouvering. That’s when it becomes clear: this is the sound of a Superhero origin story.

https://www.filmcompanion.in/streaming/netflix/the-queens-gambit-review-netflix-is-a-thrilling-revisionist-ode-to-the-worlds-foremost-mental-sport-anya-taylor-joy-rahul-desai/

Rahul Desai, Film Companion

The Queen's Gambit

The score for Godless is really excellent. It’s credited to composer Carlos Rafael Rivera, who previously did the score for another Scott Frank project, the Liam Neeson vehicle A Walk Among the Tombstones.

Brian Tallerico - Vulture

Godless

...From the new recording were the complex rhythmic games of Carlos Rivera's Cumba-Quin--with the composer present for a well-deserved bow--...

John Henken - Los Angeles Times

Cumba-Quin

“…Rivera is now three-for-three in terms of outstanding scores; both A Walk Among the Tombstones and Godless were wonderful, but for me The Queen’s Gambit is the pinnacle of his career to date.”

Jon Broxton, Movie Music, UK

The Queen's Gambit

Even after six chapters, it’s testament to how good it all looks – and how evocative Carlos Rafael Rivera’s score is – that you’ll never skip the opening credits.

Ivan Radford - Vodzilla

Godless

Yet, as Frank is a genuinely top screenwriter, the dialogue is choice, and Neeson is compelling as the protagonist, credible and authoritative in a way few Hollywood leading men could ever be. Possibly even better is Carlos Rafael Rivera’s moody score.

Jonathan Leaf - Forbes

Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera layered a silky yet haunting string melody over the gritty images created by Method Studios, giving the Netflix drama a flair reminiscent of its premium channel competitors.

Raelyn Giansnanti - IndieWire

…exposed the nostalgia, sorrow, and hope that characterize music from the folkloric tradition of the Sephardic Jews.

Inesa Gegprifti, South Florida Classical Review

Prominent in the first scene was a buzzing effect in the strings, and in the sober second a clarinet solo. The work ends with motoric and assertive music that recalls Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” The performance was warmly received and Rivera was present to take a bow.

Caldwell Titcomb - Arts Fuse

Popol-Vuh

Pero de los estrenos, el mas aplaudido fue la Pizzi-Cuban Polka, en la que la famosa obra Pizzicato Polka, de Johan Strauss, con su distintivo pizzicato, cobro vuelos de danzón-salsa a golpe de claves, maracas y tumbadoras.

Daniel Fernandez - El Nuevo Herald

This is a charming, relatively lightweight concerto, with plenty of attractive melody and color, and its appeal to the Knight Concert Hall audience, which applauded it enthusiastically, is clear.

Gregory Stepanich - Knight Arts