Bernard Stevens

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Excellent Sounding Recordings
An interesting collection of obscure s/f-fantasy themes
Digital Sound with a so-so collection

Fantastic Journey

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Star Tracks 2
Time Warp
Star Tracks
The Great Fantasy Adventure Album
Bond and Beyond

ASIN: B000003CWH
Release Date: 1990-01-30

Tracks:

Suite From Batman
Outer Space From The Day The Earth Stood Still
Prelude From War Of The Worlds
End Title From The Black Hole
Through The Black Hole (Sound Effects)
End Title From Twilight Zone: The Movie
End Title From The Boy Who Could Fly
Main Theme From The Beastmaster
End Title From Explorers
End Title (The White Horse: Into The Sunset) From Dragonslayer
Carol Ann's Theme From Poltergeist
Suite From Moonwalker
A Busy Man From Star Trek V: THe Final Frontier
Escape From Venice From Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
The Cantina Band From Star Wars
Main Title From The Last Starfighter

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Sounding Recordings.......2001-10-16

This CD has been around for a while now but it is still truly a good compilation of Science Fiction film music given a new dimension by being recorded digitally. The BATMAN selections composed by Danny Elfman are very powerful combing rousing elements with moody enigmatic passages. Most of the other selections are short or confined to one piece. The selections from TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER and POLTERGEIST all composed by Jerry Goldsmith are all performed with passion and demonstrate Goldsmith's great versatility. Bernard Herrmann's "Outer Space" from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is brief but in effect makes it all the more powerful by its great innovation and lasting impact. The WAR OF THE WORLDS "Prelude" by Leith Stevens was a great surprise.

An interesting collection of obscure s/f-fantasy themes.......2000-10-26

Maestro Kunzel has gathered together a mostly-entertaining mix of music from various s/f movies. As usual with these collections, the CD contains selections that are hard to come by (if not impossible) on a soundtrack or any other recorded source. Not all of the tracks work, however. Music from "Moonwalker" is annoying, and the theme from "War of the Worlds" is just plain weird. Not Kunzel's fault, I know, but those pieces tend to (for me) mar the overall likeability of the album. That said, there are definitely keepers: The theme from "The Black Hole," the soundtrack to which was unavailable on CD anywhere until just recently and which by itself is worth the cost; the sweet chorus of Carol Ann's Theme from "Poltergeist"; the themes from "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "The Beast Master" (I am Dar!) and "The Last Starfighter."

Unfortunately, these movie collections tend to waste too much disk space on sound effects. Often inserted as short introductions to a piece of music, most can be endured quickly and forgotten. But on this CD, a whole track's worth following "The Black Hole" is devoted to the inane cacophony of electronic gibberish, space that would have been much better served by playing, say, the Love Theme from "Superman."

Still, there are more things to like on this album than there are to dislike.

Digital Sound with a so-so collection.......2000-06-25

This is another of the Telarc label's collections put together under the conductor Erich Kunzel and performed by the Cincinnati pops orchestra. Like all Telarc discs, the sound is pure digital and hence can really pack a punch. Moreover, Kunzel often chooses some vey nice gems in his collections -- e.g. the neglected Last Starfighter piece here. However, the problem arises in the fact that many pieces of film score don't play well with a large orchestra -- they loose their focused intensity. The Batman here suffers from such a flaw and is weaker than the original score. The Pops orchestra is best with march-type themes, of which there are not enough on this album to make it outshine the original soundtracks from which it draws.

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Bernard Stevens: String Quartets

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00005TQ68
Release Date: 2001-11-27

Tracks:

Theme And Variations For String Quartet, Op.11
String Quartet No.2 Op.34: Andante
String Quartet No.2 Op.34: Presto
String Quartet No.2 Op.34: Andante
String Quartet No.2 Op.34: Allegro
Lyric Suite For String Trio, Op.30: Introduzione & Scherzo
Lyric Suite For String Trio, Op.30: Intermezzo
Lyric Suite For String Trio, Op.30: Passacaglietta
Lyric Suite For String Trio, Op.30: Finale

Average customer rating:

FOUND!!!
Wow . . .
HIDDEN GEM
Simply Stunning

Paris: A Story of Love

Manufacturer: Original Cast Record
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Musical Theater | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

Act 1: Overture - The London Symphony Orchestra
Act 1: Chorale - The London Symphony Orchestra
Act 1: A Head Without a Heart - Gareth Mortimer,
Act 1: Straight Ahead - John Parr
Act 1: What Could Go Wrong - John Parr, Trevor White
Act 1: Perfect Stranger - Sheila Parker, John Parr
Act 1: A Long Time Coming - Sheila Parker
Act 1: Business - Joe Fagin, , Harry Nilsson, John Parr, Philip Quast, John Waters
Act 1: The Leader
Act 1: Paris in Court - Joe Fagin, , Harry Nilsson, John Parr, Philip Quast, John Waters
Act 1: Any Fool Could See - Joe Fagin, Harry Nilsson, Sheila Parker, John Parr, John Waters
Act 1: Thief in the Night - Joe Fagin
Act 1: Thoughts of Love - John Parr
Act 1: Trust in Your Heart - John Parr
Act 1: Welcome Home
Act 1: Hell or High Water - Sheila Parker, John Parr

Tracks:

Act 2: No Turning Back - Jon English
Act 2: For Better or Worse - Sheila Parker, John Parr
Act 2: Ten Years On - The London Symphony Orchestra, Tim Renwick
Act 2: The Greek Camp - Joe Fagin, , Harry Nilsson, Philip Quast, John Waters
Act 2: What Price a Friend - Philip Quast
Act 2: Love Has Power - Jon English
Act 2: Two Titans - John Parr
Act 2: The Beggar - Harry Nilsson, Sheila Parker
Act 2: Ulysses Prayer - Joe Fagin, Harry Nilsson
Act 2: A Horse With No Rider - Harry Nilsson, John Waters
Act 2: Inside Outside - Barry Humphries, Francis Rossi, Demis Roussos
Act 2: The Balance Shifts
Act 2: Oh Paris - Harry Nilsson,
Act 2: Finale

Customer Reviews:

FOUND!!!.......2007-05-02

My brother brought the cassettes when they first came out years ago, over time they were lost or eaten by various tape players. I have spent years looking for a copy, cause my whole family loves it. Now HOORAY!!!!! I FOUND IT!!!!!!! I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW HAPPY I WAS WHEN I FOUND IT.

Wow . . ........2007-01-13

I found this album while searching for music by Philip Quast. I've studied theatre, and I'm a fan of some more "obscure" musicals, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a musical based on the Trojan war.

The music is excellent, and the cast is/was more than up to singing it. I would love to see it on stage.

HIDDEN GEM.......2006-06-21

It is such a shame that this fantastic musical is tucked away in relative obscurity.The music is very haunting and catchy with some great lighter pieces.The original cast members have very diverse talents and give the score great depth. Please someone produce this wonderful musical.!!!!!!!

Simply Stunning.......2004-06-06

This musical was recorded way back in 1990 and it is only now that it may get the worldwide attention it deserves. This is the story of Paris and Helen of Troy which of course is now very topical. The recording features the best from around the world and Australia. It is simplt stunning! If Jon English' name was Andrew Lloyd Webber, this would have benn playing to packed houses around the world for the last 15 years. Don't hesitate on this...buy it and impress your friends with a sensational buy!!!

Stevens: Variations Op36; Concerto for piano Op26

Average customer rating:

Two Wonderful Neoclassic Works, One Less So
The Variations are a masterpiece, superbly recorded.

Stevens: Variations Op36; Concerto for piano Op26

Manufacturer: Marco Polo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Devreese: Symphony No.1/Poème Héroique/In Memoriam

ASIN: B0000045ZD
Release Date: 1994-10-04

Tracks:

Dance Suite, Op. 28: Allegro
Dance Suite, Op. 28: Andante
Dance Suite, Op. 28: Allegretto
Dance Suite, Op. 28: Andante - Presto
Piano Concerto, Op. 26: Andante con moto
Piano Concerto, Op. 26: Adagio
Piano Concerto, Op. 26: Finale - allegro
Variations, Op. 36

Customer Reviews:

Two Wonderful Neoclassic Works, One Less So.......2004-02-11

I'm slowly working my way through the available recordings of music by Bernard Stevens (1916-1983), a British composer whom I only became acquainted with in the last few months and who I believe is a real master, at least in some of his works. Earlier I have reviewed a chamber music disc (ASIN B0000AQS7J) and disc featuring string quartet (ASIN B00000E985). The former was exceptional, both in the quality of the works and the performances; the latter was terrific as far as the works are concerned, but I had some misgivings about the performances.

In this disc of orchestral music, nicely played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under Adrian Leaper, we also have a bit of a mixed bag. Two of the works are excellent: The Dance Suite, Op. 28, and the Variations, Op. 36. Less so, I'm sorry to say because I was really looking forward to it, is the Piano Concerto, Op. 26.

The most forward-looking and probably the strongest piece of Stevens's I've heard so far is the Variations. This is a latish piece that is formally a passacaglia based on a tone row. I tend to latch onto twelve-tone music most easily when the form is easily grasped, and that is the case here; and also this tone row is so constructed that there is more than a hint of tonality, in this case E flat major/minor. The Variations open with a set of seven slow variations that function as more or less a 'first movement' in this 18-minute work. Then the mood lightens considerably and leads to a real workout of timbral changes showing real ingenuity in orchestration. Toward the end is a funeral march that leads into extended violin solo that reaches for the rapture of ecstasy. The last five variations function as an energetic leading to a not-so-startling cadence on a grand and glorious E-flat major chord. The natural-sounding structural inevitability of this work is its crowning glory, and each time I've listened to it I've grown more impressed.

Rather different is the Dance Suite in four movements lasting about 19 minutes. It surely was modeled to some extent on Bartók's Dance Suite in that it is not particularly light-hearted but rhythmically ingenious nonetheless. It would be hard to imagine anyone getting up and dancing to any of this music, but there might be some sneaky toe-tapping along the way, although in the somber second movement, a passacaglia in an irregular 5/4, the toe-tapping could never be quite automatic, and although the impulse would be there one would certainly get tripped up in the last movement. The first movement is a dreamlike jig, the second is the passacaglia, the third feels like it's in three much of the time but is, in fact, a 2/2 pavane. The fourth is in an adroitly handled 11/8, or is most of the time. It drives to an exhilarating canonic finish.

The piano concerto somehow doesn't speak to me. It is neatly made, and the pianist, Martin Roscoe, is certainly an able soloist. But the materials strike me as nondescript, in the main, although there is a wonderful theme that is manipulated cleverly in the third movement and the piano soloist gets a thrilling cadenza before the somewhat perfunctory conclusion.

So, for the Dance Suite and particularly for the Variations, this disc is worth having. And I'm sure there are those who would find more than I did in the Piano Concerto. I continue to believe that Bernard Stevens is due more recognition than he currently gets. But that's the way of the world, I guess.

Scott Morrison

The Variations are a masterpiece, superbly recorded........1999-01-16

While the Dance Suite and Piano concerto both have many enjoyable moments and are well crafted, the finest work here is the Variations for Orchestra. Stevens writes in an accessible tonal language with a slight serial bent. The Variations are gritty and terse on first hearing but they stand up very well to repetition. You feel you are in the presence of a first rank composer who knew his stuff and deserved wider exposure. Strongly recommended.

Very good natural recording and well played.

Bernard Stevens: The Shadow of the Glen/The True Dark
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Bernard Stevens: The Shadow of the Glen/The True Dark

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005ABNH
Release Date: 2001-03-27

Tracks:

I. Invocation: Comet Silence - Richard Jackson
II. The Clash Of Murderous Day - Richard Jackson
III. The Tide Of Night - Richard Jackson
IV. All Sound Disintegrates - Richard Jackson
V. The Birds Know This - Richard Jackson
VI. The Tall Delirious Events - Richard Jackson
VII. Truth Scrambles - Richard Jackson
VIII. Love Knows - Richard Jackson
IX. Envoi: Dear Comet Silence - Richard Jackson
X. Coda: In The Last Fallible Projection - Richard Jackson
Beginning - Della Jones
'De Profundis Clamavi' - Della Jones
'I Wasn't Long, Stranger' - Della Jones
'But It's A Fine Life You'll Have Now' - Della Jones
'We'll Be Going Now, Lady Of The House' - Della Jones
'Sit Down And Take A Little Taste Of The Stuff' - Della Jones

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Max Rostal 1905 In Memoriam 1991

Manufacturer: Symposium
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000009JWA
Release Date: 1994-10-24

Consoli: Varie Azioni/Vuci Siculani/Memorie Pie/Di. Ver. Ti. Mento/Saxlodie

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Consoli: Varie Azioni/Vuci Siculani/Memorie Pie/Di. Ver. Ti. Mento/Saxlodie

Manufacturer: Composers Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005TYD
Release Date: 1997-02-18

Tracks:

Varie Azioni: I - Cantilena
Varie Azioni: II - Notturno Triste
Varie Azioni: III - Salta Fuoco
Vuci Siculani: I - Sturmentu I
Vuci Siculani: II - In Festo Corporis Christi
Vuci Siculani: III - Sturmento II
Vuci Siculani: IV - Epilogo
Vuci Siculani: Memorie Pie
Di. Ver. Ti. Mento: I - Pres And Ludes
Di. Ver. Ti. Mento: II - Imitations, Real And Otherwise
Di. Ver. Ti. Mento: III - Ostinati And Other Obsessions
Di. Ver. Ti. Mento: IV - Inventions And Interventions
Saxlodie: I - Andante Comodo
II - Allegro Feroce

Bernard Stevens: Theme & Variations for String Quartet, Op. 11 (1949) / String Quartet No. 2, Op. 34 (1962) / Lyric Suite for String Trio, Op. 30 (1958) - The Delmé String Quartet

Average customer rating:

Beautifully-wrought quartets but the playing is a near miss

Bernard Stevens: Theme & Variations for String Quartet, Op. 11 (1949) / String Quartet No. 2, Op. 34 (1962) / Lyric Suite for String Trio, Op. 30 (1958) - The Delmé String Quartet
Bernard Stevens (Composer) , and The Delmé String Quartet
Manufacturer: Unicorn (U.K.)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000E985
Release Date: 1993-12-07

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully-wrought quartets but the playing is a near miss.......2003-11-23

I've had a number of CDs over the years with playing by the British group, the Delmé String Quartet, and I've been generally pleased with them. Their series of recordings of the quartets of Robert Simpson, for instance, was outstanding. So, it was with great anticipation that I bought this CD of string quartets by a recent discovery of mine, the British composer Bernard Stevens (1916-1983), some of whose chamber music I'd recently acquired on the Albany label (containing the superb Piano Trio) played by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. I have to say that I was a little let down by the playing here, though. There are more than a few passages with obvious intonation problems and, furthermore, there are several places where it feels like the quartet is simply marking time. And this is certainly not because of longueurs in the music itself. No, Stevens was a master composer, I've come to believe, and in particular his style is tightly contrapuntal in a tonal (but exploratory) style that is immediately accessible and almost always emotionally communicative.

The disc contains the early Theme and Variations for String Quartet, Op. 11 (1949), a nineteen minute set of twelve variations on a hymn-like theme that nonetheless describes a harmonic arc that goes far afield and then returns to its home base in the key of E flat. The variations are grouped in such a way as to suggest four movements typical of those in a classic quartet--Adagio, Allegretto, Andante, Allegro. The final 'movement', Variation 12, is a fugue on a new subject that brings back and combines with the original theme in its peroration. A neat, effective piece.

String Quartet No. 2, Op. 34 (1962) (so numbered because Stevens considered the Theme and Variations to be his Quartet No. 1) is based on a twelve-tone row so arranged that there are two triads, one major, one minor. Consequently one does not immediately discern the twelve-tone-ness of the piece, and indeed it becomes immaterial from the listener's perspective. The harmonic result is a kind of chromaticism that nonetheless stays reasonably within the bounds of tonality. This is a big work, almost thirty minutes long and in four separate movements, and is characterized by its songfulness, dramatic contrasts, contrapuntal interest. Particularly effective is the elegiac Adagio, the third movement, a passacaglia built upon a variation of the initial tone-row. A burst of first violin rhapsody leads into the energetic, almost driven, finale. Reminiscences of the earlier movements flit past before a rather extended recollection of the beginning of the opening movement brings the whole thing to a satisfying close. It is unfortunate that the powerful Adagio contains some of the Delmé's uncertain intonation.

The final piece on the CD is the five-movement Lyric Suite for String Trio, Op. 30 (1958). Theme-and-variations technique is again in evidence. The harmonic language is pretty straightforwardly tonal with a few excursions into the extended tonality of, say, Alban Berg. Perhaps the name of the piece is a nod in the direction of Berg's own Lyric Suite. Stevens makes much of the piece's rather limited thematic materials, changing and transforming them from movement to movement, giving the whole a feeling of unity. Overall the Suite is rather somber, but always lyrical. It is in this piece that it appears to me that the three involved members of the Delmé do a certain amount of note-spinning. I suspect this strong piece would benefit from a more impassioned and committed reading.

Tracks:

Cello Con: 1st Movt
Cello Con: Chaconne
Cello Con: Finale
A Sym Of Liberation: Enslavement
A Sym Of Liberation: Resistance
A Sym Of Liberation: Liberation

Piano Music by Herbert Howells & Bernard Stevens

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Piano Music by Herbert Howells & Bernard Stevens

Manufacturer: Guild
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000025YOS
Release Date: 2005-01-17

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