World Premières
Music by James Stevens
A unique Internet event - two major orchestral recordings to
download exclusively at Pristine Classical! With extensive
recorded interview with the composer and audio examples.
recorded by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
 |
An opera in 3 parts
Stephen Gadd (baritone)
Mayo Shono (vox.)
Susan Bickley
(Contralto)
Conductor: Cem Mansur
|
 |
A Short Piano Concerto
Jaromil Klepac
(piano)
Conductor: Adam Klemens |
About
the composer, James Stevens (b. 1923):
Studied
initially with Benjamin Frankel in his exclusive class at the Guildhall
School of Music in London. There he won several prestigious awards including
the Royal Philharmonic Prize for his First Symphony; the Wainwright Scholarship
for 'composer of the year'; and a French Government Bursary which took
him across the Channel to study with Darius Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire.
There he met Nadia Boulanger who made him one of her star pupils who received
Saturday evening tuition free of charge. He also enjoyed an open invitation
to Arthur Honegger's classes.
He later
won the coveted Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize in Boston, USA, for 'composers
of exceptional talent and integrity' awarded by a panel of judges which
included Stravinsky, Copland and Villa-Lobos. Another award was the Mendelssohn
Scholarship which even Benjamin Britten failed to achieve, despite several
attempts! As a result of this he spent some time in Berlin at the Hochschule
für Musik. He also won the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths' Award
while his most recent honour was the BDK International Award in Tokyo
for his Buddhist requiem Celebration for the Dead played by the Tokyo
Symphony Orchestra.
Stevens
commenced his extensive film career while still a student and was acclaimed
at the Ealing Studios where he constantly devised new film music techniques
which are now standard practice.
Unusually,
Stevens has never confined himself to one particular musical genre and
has taken every opportunity to take part in pop music, jazz, films, television
scores, and musicals; his musical Mamízelle Nitouche being revived
in London's West End in the autumn of 2001. Although also concerned with
serious avant-garde works, his music is melodic rather than atonal.
In one
year he was the only British composer to be selected for the annual International
Society for Contemporary Music (with Etymon) while having a disc at number
one in the Melody Maker charts (with Exploding Galaxy). In 1990 he was
nominated for the BAFTA music award for his contribution to Chelworth
- eight one-hour episodes. In 1995 he was invited to give a 'James Stevens
Day' in Cincinnati, shortly after which he was invited by the Musicians
Union of Japan to represent English artists at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
50th anniversary memorial ceremonies.
In 1998
the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio gave the world premiere of Concertante
a Tre and in 1999 Stevens was commissioned to write David's Round for
a 9-year-old prodigy violinist, also in Cleveland, USA. The following
year he was commissioned by members of the Cleveland Orchestra to write
a work for cello and piano called Duo Per Umanita. Also in 2000 Stevens
completed his magnum opus The Reluctant Masquerade, dealing with the human
psyche and nature of time. In 2001 he wrote the incidental music for American
writer Daniel de Cournoyer's epic one-man theatre show Bells to Hell and
also a Processional for a wedding in Australia.
(Taken
from MusicWeb
International)
