With delicately coloured, sensitive sound images, Su shows his mastery of the playing methods of the European avant-garde.
Albert – Peter Bitz "Saarbrücker Zeitung", December 24, 1984

If the Chinese compose in such a unique and successful manner (as Su does) ,they are very welcome.
vl "Darmstädter Tagblatt", March 29, 1985

Su Cong´s Daybreak was an extraordinarily interesting and successful piece.
Anne Boyd "South China Moning Post" Hong Kong, June 27, 1986

The piece`s magical opening ideas ... reveal some imaginative orchestral colours. As a first orchestral work (Concert overture), it reveals Su as a composer of considerable potential.
Anne Boyd "TV Times & Entertainment" Hong Kong, November 5 -11, 1986

Cong Su´s music is still great.
Bernardo Bertolucci, movie director, March 27, 1987

Su`s music is like elegant poetry.
Yves Allaz "Heures Magazine" Lausanne, April 27, 1987

The musical score...of Su is extremely resonant.
Cart. "Variety" New York, October 7, 1987

Because of Su`s colourful and well implemented style, the piece was the best of the Chinese programme....
gtd "Die Welt" Germany, November 30, 1987

La musica de Su para llegar a resultados que son objetivamente musicales y refinadamente poeticos.
Enrique Franco "El Pais" Madrid, March 14, 1988

Su`s concert overture is epic like the film music. It develops ideas instead of forcing them in a dialectical framework full of contrasts as Western music tends to do.
Ellen Kohlhaas "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" Germany, May 14, 1988

Su`s music is fresh and mellow and conveys a picturesque and lyric effect. He creates a vision of a fantastic and poetic world.
Du Wei "Beijing Review" May 16 – 22, 1988

Already at that time -when Su was writing his first orchestral work- one certainly realized that he would one day compose a great film music.
All colourful effects show finesse and talent which have a strong public appeal.
Gabriele Nicol "Frankfurter Neue Presse", May 18, 1988

Su‘s overture was exciting....With a considerable talent for calculating tension, the composer seems to introduce a newly formulated specificism: The suspense built up again and again in a halting line suddenly erupts into an orchestral furore. This music is both spiritualised and suggestive.
Alexander Ullmann "Frankfurter Rundschau" Germany, May 18, 1988

Cong Su‘s understanding of composition is derived from the tradition of Chinese music... He wants his music to show that traditional Chinese values can help us re-adopt a more open and considerate way of treating each other. It merges temperament and love and Western music traditions.
Jürgen Kremb "die tageszeitung" Germany, June 13, 1988

Cong Su‘s music is based on the surviving fragments of the Book of Poetry of Confucius. Through it, Su is searching for a new spirit of Chinese music. He does everything to convey this noble and elegant style - and succeeds.
Guang Qin "World Daily News" USA, July 21, 1988

His music grew into a beautiful atmospheric creation by evoking images from nature and into an occasionally strange though continually exciting amalgamation of traditional Eastern and modern Western style elements and techniques.
J.C. "Nieuwe Gazet"Antwerp, December 6, 1988

Cong Su, the composer has succeeded in creating the sound of typical Eastern instruments as the chen and the pipa . V. Philharmonic Orchestra gave convincing shape to this exotic experiment.
JdT "DS" Antwerpen, December 6, 1988

Cong Su´s attempt to synthesize Western instruments, contemporary composition techniques and the traditional style of the Far East has brought forth a piece of refined "Chinese impressionism", which Western ears certainly know how to appreciate, especially when it is performed in an equally refined way.
G.J. "Gazet van Antwerpen", December 6, 1988

A l´atmosphère éthérée, fluide, mystérieuse, presque envoutante.
Olivier "La Semaine D´Anvers" Belgian, December 9, 1988

Using a wide range of percussion instruments, the composition of Cong Su is a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures and spellbinds the audience with its unusual use of colour. This modern approach does not lose itself in academic experiments, but aims at fascinating the listener in various ways.
Liestal " Basellandschaftliche Zeitung" Basel, Januar 7, 1989

In China Cong Su is regarded as one of the most important young composers... With every note, his music proves him to be an early master in handling the orchestra and in the art of combining effortlessly elements of old Chinese and new European music which can be tolerated by both continents.
Hellmuth Kotschenreuther "Der Berliner Tagesspiegel" Germany, January 28, 1989

Cong Su shows that he is conversant with the musical language of the West without denying his own cultural roots.
Wolfgang Schultze "Berliner Morgenpost" Germany, Januery 28, 1989

Su‘s latest music is simply magnificent.
Lan Zu Wei " United Daily News" and " Min Sheng Pao" Taiwan, May 2, 1989

Cong Su‘s commitment and imaginative contribution has supported and furthered our work for the theatre.
Hans Neuenfels, stage play, opera and movie director, November 19, 1989.

The talent of the composer Cong Su has definitely enhanced the film‘s viewing value. His powerful music makes the film even more lively and appealing.
Dun Ping Yang "Xin Sheng Pao" / "Central Daily News
( International edition)" Taiwan, January 10, 1990

In the West, Su Cong is one of four most important new Chinese Mainland composer... They are rapidly achieving international fame, and at various big festivals of contemporary music, Chinese avant – garde has clearly won a place of ist own.
Frank Kouwenhoven "CHIME – Newsletter of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research" Leiden / The Netherlands, Autumn 1990

The best known film music composer abroad is Su Cong.
Frank Kouwenhoven "CHIME – Newsletter of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research" Leiden / The Netherlands, Spring 1991

Zijn ( Cong Su ) muziek, voor deze helegenheid een mix van Chinese, Europese en Afrikaanse klanken, is op sommige momenten in esthetisch opzicht schaamteloos maar blijkt in een theatrale context ook buitengewoon effectief.
Pay – Uun Hiu "De Volkskrant" Holland, March 5, 1997

A multimedial and multicultural spectacle inspired Su to write virtuosic music ... he clothes the evident perplexity in a restless exchange of the most diverse musical elements...
Pedro Obiera "Neue Ruhr Zeitung" Essen, March 11, 1997

In his chamber opera, Cong Su proves that he thinks in terms of the stage... His music sounds brusque and reserved, yet at the same time sweet and melodious.
Hans – Jörg Loskill "WAZ" Essen, March 13, 1997

Cong Su has now composed his first work for the music theatre. In the best multimedia tradition, it combines video technology, stage acting, synthesizer and tape sounds and live music to form a masterly parody of a wide variety of Asian and European/American styles.
The coexistence of Europe and Asia shapes Cong Su‘s music. Short and concise numbers are stringed together effectively without any one theme being swallowed by the music.
Reinhard J. Brembeck "Süddeutsche Zeitung" Germany, March 20, 1997

(Cong Su‘s) spectacle is masterly staged, ending with a crescendo in which the music and the visual images drive each other relentlessly on to the final climax.
Christoph Zimmermann "General – Anzeiger" Bonn, April 3, 1997

The sun rose on the opening of the studio stage of the municipal theatre of Mönchengladbach-Rhydt: what libretto writer Ulfert Becker and composer Cong Su presented was a stroke of luck... Cong Su‘s clever montage of new music is a convincing production: a ready-mix of African rhythms, traditional Chinese melody lines and several ingredients from the New Music of this part of the world. The subtle tonal fields and the striking tonal figures arising from them are administered in well-measured doses... Here the rules of the Western and Eastern worlds - including the rules of music composition - meet head-on.
Frieder Reininghaus "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" Germany, April 14, 1997

In his music, Cong Su has no qualms about mixing Eastern and Western elements. Even the typical explosive sounds of the Peking opera take on an African timbre.
Jochen Schmidt "Die Deutsche Bühne" Germany, April 1997

Cong Su has written a multimedia opus, combining stage play, dance, film, video, radio play, flashback, montage and collage into a single 75-minute act of total theatre. The different levels are cleverly mixed in the use of sound and scene. Cong Su embraces reality and vision, live instrumentation and tape recordings to form a multiply "broken lament"... There are tense, deeply moving moments.
This "sun" should rise more often.
Jörg Loskill "Opernwelt" The International Opera Magazine, May 1997

In his music theatre, Cong Su has made the conflict between the worlds audible by linking Asian and European music.
Siegfried Matuschak "Das Opernglas" Germany, May 1997

Although Cong Su‘s ballet music ("The Last Emperor") is based on individual motifs of the film music - already familiar to us all from the sound track - it attains a new dimension. It is particularly influenced by the way Su effectively links reminiscent scenes by a rondo form through the whole ballet.
Wei Ni "Sin Tao Daily News" Hong Kong, June 11, 1997

Now Pu Yi´s life has been turned into a controversial ballet, with perfect and provocative timing. Choreographed by Wayne Eagling, and Su Cong wrote the ballet´s score.
Alison Dakota Gee "International Herald Tribune", June 11, 1997

Cong Su‘s ballet music uses a composition concept similar to that of film music. It is a brilliant and extremely dramatic style of writing. Beyond this, Cong Su also makes clever use of the characteristic colour of the various groups of instruments.
Chow Fan Fu "New Evining Post" Hong Kong, June 19, 1997

C´est à dire le choix de Cong Su tombait en quelque sorte sous le sens. Il utilise des instruments et des harmonies empruntés aux deux univers, sa composition ponctue fidèlement la problématique du film.
Jacques Mandelbaum "Le Monde" Paris, June 19, 1997

Without question, the 75-minute performance (of Cong Su) is impressive and intoxicating.
Daniel Nayber "Orpheus" Germany, June 1997

In his work Cong Su combines sound worlds from his homeland with music styles of the West. The music unites two sound forms in an exemplary way.
Nina Goslar of the "Monthly Journal" of Germany‘s TV channel ZDF / 3sat - 3rd satellite TV channel of Germany, Austria and Switzerland / arte - European culture TV channel, June 1997

Opera (by Cong Su) with a scintillating spectrum of expression: music and media. The many levels of interpretation interlock perfectly.
Altogether a successful experiment from many points of view.
Klaus Matthias Schmidt "Rheinische Post" Düsseldorf, October 31, 1997

Harmony of movement to dissonant music painting (by Cong Su). The musical production pulls many stops. The vocalisation alternates between singing and speaking, depending on the dramatic moment. Long applause.
Hajo Schroeder "Kölner Stadt – Anzeiger" Cologne, December 4, 1997
The press was ecstatic after the first night, proclaiming that Cong Su had discovered and impressively demonstrated a new form of expression for the theatre.
"Ruhr – Nachrichten" Dortmund, December 16, 1997

Cong Su‘s music is aggressive to match the explosiveness of the subject matter. European opera motifs are interwoven with Chinese sounds and African percussion.
Cong Su‘s work was particularly appreciated by the young members of the audience.
gmb Culture chronicle 1997 in Rheinland from "Neues Rheinland", Germany.

Composer Cong Su gave convincing debut (in Dortmund). Su creates such a skilful and effective montage of several layers of the story, music and video recordings that his message always comes through clearly.
KM "Ruhr – Nachrichten" Dortmund, Januery 26, 1998

The ballet music "The Last Emperor" of Cong Su is decidedly colourful and excellent.
"Wen Hui Pao" Hong Kong, May 8, 1998

The choreography´s idioms, like Mr.Su´s deliberate swing from Chinese motifs to Western melodies in an effective symphonic style, adapt visibly to different dramatic situations.
Anna Kisselgoff "The New York Times”, May 15, 1998

And Su Cong´s score, built from the strands of Chinese music he contributed to the film, effectively alternates traditional Chinese sounds with Western idioms.
Sylviane Gold "Newsday" USA, May 15, 1998

The music was composed by Su Cong who also wrote the music for the movie The Last Emperor. He used a lot of Chinese musical instrument. The music, which had beautiful melodies, achieved the correct dramatic effect.
" New York Dance Fax", July 1998

Opera as a musical: Chinese-born Cong Su has composed a "Flying Dutchman of the 21st century" for Rostock theatre... The policy in Rostock is to counter the crisis in the musical industry by offering a high level of artistic quality and addressing all sections of the public. The risk is taken to perform highbrow contemporary music and avoid the line of least resistance - also with regard to content - that has led the greatest German musical producer into a crisis after only a few years.
mau "Süddeutsche Zeitung" Germany, March 5, 1999

Loud applause for powerful "C-Man". The composer of this musical, Cong Su, is regarded as one of the most versatile music writers of the present day... The music and the action utilise a wide spectrum ranging from emotive to shrill and highly strung... Young people in particular said that "C-Man" had been Rostock‘s "hottest" play so far.
Klaus Rebuschat "dpa - German press agency", March 5, 1999. Quoted with 3 dpa photos by 31 newspapers, including
"Die Welt", Germany, March 8, 1999
"General- Anzeiger" Bonn, March 8, 1999
"Neue Presse"Hannover, March 8, 1999
"Ruhr – Nachrichten",Dortmund, March 8, 1999 etc.

The frequently colossal, sometimes deliberately banale, but always highly complex scores of Cong Su ... with the emotional and the shrill, even overexcited passages ...
Wolfgang Dalk "Norddeutsche Neuste Nachrichten" Rostock /"Schweriner Volkszeitung" etc., March 8, 1999

First the boom was extolled to the skies, now the crisis is being loudly bewailed. Sheer nonsense! The musical is still alive and even kicking ... A particularly courageous project is currently being staged at Rostock theatre... Cong Su illustrates and comments...The result is artistic and unquestionably of a high standard.
H.J.Rickert "musicals" Germany, April 1999

The performance of the musical about the restless sailor, which had been apostrophised as the "Flying Dutchman of the 21st century", shows the variety of his music, which not only contains quotations from Wagner operas but also elements of Blues as well as exotic and Techno sounds.
Klaus Rebuschat "dpa – German press agency", December 3, 1999

For the celebrations of the first Spring Festival in the new millennium, the Beijing Concert Hall has commissioned over 40 of the most famous contemporary Chinese composers. The various methods of composition, forms and styles of setting the most famous poems of China‘s thousands of years of history to music were presented in a series of première concerts. There is an increasing fusion of music and poetry. Many people think that Cong Su‘s composition is one of the two best works.
red. "Artstoday" Bejing, March 2000

The concert series "The setting to music of the most famous poems of China‘s history" presented by the Beijing Concert Hall is the latest climax of stage life in the Chinese capital ...... The dimension of this concert series is characterised by systematic strength and the artistic aspect ...... Five composers (including Cong Su) from overseas have submitted outstanding work.
Jin Ji Guang "Artstoday" Bejing, March 2000

"Ecstatic reception for Karlsruhe ballet - première with music by Cong Su"
A ballet première with music of Oscar award winner Cong Su was celebrated with minutes of applause and cheers on Sunday evening in Karlsruhe.
Cong Su‘s composition straddles the barriers between present, past and future. He is equally at home with symphonic and computer elements. Rhythms from Africa or the Caribbean merge with classical and experimental music to create a mysterious world of sound.
sk "dpa – German press agency", April 23, 2000

Quoted with one dpa photo by 30 newspapers, including
Wiesbadener Kurier, April 25, 2000
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, April 25, 2000 etc.

Cong Su again impressively proves his role as mediator between serious and popular music with his new composition "Distance to Eternity". The orchestral music comes amazingly close to Cong Su‘s idea of a multicultural world music.
However, it is exactly this composition structure, described by Cong Su in a modest understatement as "mixing", which makes this piece of music so unique. There are no ostentatious quotations, nor is the history of music torn to shreds in the modern sampling manner. Instead, the rhythmically and harmonically transparent composition on a syncopic basic structure works like a kind of Chinese ink painting, using colour rather than quotations... The resulting music is rich in metaphor and association, its melodic elements possessing a
tremendous magnetism.
Roger Waltz: Moderation script of Deutschlandfunk - German Radio‘s E-Musik office, April 24, 2000

This was an evening of sustained fascination, mainly because of the natural way choreography and music flowed together. The Chinese composer Cong Su has written a score that oscillates between Eastern and Western music cultures and developments ... a brightly coloured world of sound with passionate verve!
With Olaf Schmidt‘s work, "Distance to Eternity" was not only world music - but world choreography as well.
Malve Gradinger: Moderation script of Deutschlandfunk - German Radio‘s Culture office, April 24, 2000

The première of "Distance to Eternity" interpreted the motto of the 15th European Culture Festival "Kunst-Stück Zukunft" in the form of a cohesive work or art that seems to effortlessly overcome the barriers between dance, music, stage play and multimedia.
Cong Su‘s music builds a fascinating house of sound that makes room for every development - unfamiliar but exciting.
The audience in the full house enthusiastically celebrated all the performers ...... above all Cong Su - who was reluctant to accept the ovation. With this première the Badische Staatstheater has given the Culture Festival an impressive start - and a forward-looking one as well, as the motto intended.
Irene Schröder "Badisches Tagblatt" Baden - Baden,
April 25, 2000

...The first night of the ballet "Distance to Eternity" was all the more surprising ... the successful composer Cong Su is clever and theatrical enough not to let the distance to eternity fall into philosophical nirvana ... The charm of the improvised dancing is just as entertaining as the catchy suite music of Cong Su.
Reinhard Wengierek "Die Welt" Germany, May 3, 2000

At the turn of the millennium, the Chinese composer Cong Su has written a piece of orchestral music which makes use of the keyboard and electric guitar as well as classical instruments. The music is generated by the computer, while the musicians play in the white uniforms of chip workers... Beautiful and powerful sound.
The production merges present, past and future as well as the scenic elements of music, dance and projection. Symphonic and computer music is mixed together, exotic rhythms combine with classic and experimental sounds ... after the performance there was enthusiatic applause for the composer.
Susanne Kupke "Westdeutsche Zeitung" Düsseldorf, etc. April 25, 2000.
"Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz" and "Wiesbadener Tagblatt, April 29, 2000

"China greets all of Europe"
"Distance to Eternity": the European Culture Festival has explained what this means. It is the name of a new ballet with all sorts of surprises - and innovatively fresh music written by the Chinese composer Cong Su.
uha "Der Sonntag" Germany, April 23, 2000

From the "Distance to Eternity" came a composition oscillating between obvious symbolism and complete abstraction. Cong Su‘s music sparkles kaleidoscopically, combining the live music of the Badische Staatskapelle with computer sounds. The instruments sound like colours .... a first night to celebrate!
Nike Luber "Stuttgarter Nachrichten", April 27, 2000 & "Oper & Tanz" Germany, June 2000

The story of mankind in 90 minutes - the Karlsruhe State Ballet attempted to achieve this bold enterprise with the music of Oscar award winner Cong Su. With success, as the exciting performance was rewarded with sustained applause and cheering.
"dpa – German press agence", Germany, April 24, 2000

Imaginative and creative dancing flows into amazing, spontaneous routines, given key impulses by the innovatively orchestrated suite music of the successful composer Cong Su.
Eckehard Uhlig "ballet international tanz aktuell". Europe´s leading dance magazine, June 2000.
"Pforzheimer Zeitung", Heilbronner Stimme", etc. April 25, 2000

Cong Su‘s treatment of "The Franklin Expedition" is a musical journey into madness. Clever, exciting and grotesque.
TV production office: Johanna Holzhauer, Christiane Möller‘s "Kulturszene" of WDR - West German Television, Cologne, September 17, 2000

The composer Cong Su knows how to focus on images, gestures and situations described by the musical modules. They are independent pieces of music, yet at the same time they create a subtle atmosphere and can serve as illustrations of what is happening on the stage.
"Franklin Expedition" to the music of Cong Su is an extremely successful production, well worth seeing - and hearing.
Hanno Ehrler, Radio scripts for the "Musikszene West" of WDR – West German Radio 3, Cologne, September 15, 2000

With the "Franklin Expedition" (music by Cong Su) a production of this kind has succeeded. It refuses to be categorised: it is not a theatre play, it is neither music theatre nor performance, although it makes versatile use of elements from all these genres. For example, the music is so catchy in parts that it seems like the accompaniment to a stage play. In other parts, it provides a dramatic operatic backdrop of a scene or seems to be quite separate, as if the musicians were just playing a piece for a string quartet.
The form of the "Franklin Expedition" draws from various genres: stage play, performance, music theatre - giving the resulting collage form an identity of its own. But this is not the only reason why this successful production is so worth seeing and hearing. The combination of the loosely connected texts, film clips and pieces of music maintains suspense for the whole 1 hour 40 minutes of the performance, providing numerous punch lines and gags. On top of this, Cong Su‘s four musicians play occasionally difficult settings with great feeling for detail.
Hanno Ehrler, Radio scripts for the "Musikjournal" of Deutschlandfunk - German Radio, September 18, 2000

When the stage drama reaches a point where it does not quite know how to continue, the music comes audibly to the fore with sounds of the spheres or musical quotations ... The guests at the première showed their appreciation for the over 1 1/2-hour performance with unreserved applause for all those involved.
Dieter Lechner "dpa - Deutsche Presse Agentur", September 17, 2000

When a man of so many talents as Lutz Hübner (actor, director and author) and a composer like the Oscar award winner Cong Su team up to make a theatre production, one may expect an adventure. And in their joint assignment for the "New Music Theatre" series, we are not disappointed.
The non-stop 100-minute theatre performance is unexpectedly entertaining and agreeable... a successful theatrical adventure.
Marieluise Jeitschko "Ruhr Nachrichten" Dortmund, September 20, 2000

"The Franklin Expedition", an advanced ... and skilled piece of music by Cong Su and unsually polystylistic.
Frieder Reininghaus Radio scripts for the "Kultur heute" of Deutschlandfunk – German Radio, September 16, 2000.
Radio scripts for the "Musikforum – Music Forum" of NDR - Norther German Radio Hamburg, September 18, 2000.
"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" Germany, October 20, 2000

"The Franklin Expedition" is the venture into an unusual multimedia theatre project...Lutz Hübner, author, director and actor, produces this ambitious commissioned work as a mixture of music theatre and film, stage play and dance, projection and radio reportage...
The entire work of art and the eccentrically grotesque or macabrely bitter action is held together by Cong Su‘s chamber music.
Su writes a score between minimal melodiousness and roughened expressiveness. He illustrates the scenes and at the same time breaks them ironically. At times, the music floats like a web of vernal euphoria, before plunging into the iciest depths. Also, Hübner and Su keep integrating melodic fragments (songs, dances, humming) for the quartet of soloists. So the music certainly "sets the tone" in this remarkable première of a theatre that is not afraid to take risks and tread new paths.
Jörg Loskill "Opernwelt", The International Opera Magazine, November 2000