Reviews

Symphony of Liberation and ‘Cello Concerto
“This is impressive music, beautifully written and thoughtfully scored, thematically memorable without sounding oppressive.”
Robert Cowan – CD Review

Violin Concerto
“Successive listenings have persuaded me that this is one of the great English violin concertos.” Lehmann – American Record Guide

String Quartets and Lyric Suite for String Trio
Classic CD Chamber Music Pick of the Year “This disc is an unanswerable argument for hailing Stevens not as somebody worth attention but as a major British composer of the order of Britten and Tippett.”

“. . . a centrally important composer who was unforgivably neglected . . .” Edward Pearce – Classic CD

Variations for Orchestra
“The Variations for Orchestra are quite simply a masterpiece. In them Stevens concluded his personalised synthesis of serialism within tonal structures to invigorating effect, the music closely argued and tellingly orchestrated.” Guy Rickards – The Gramophone

“It is one of the most imposing orchestral works combining traditional form and contemporary embellishment this listener has ever encountered – a fitting conservative response to Elliott Carter’s great twelve-tone Variations for Orchestra of 1954.” Paul Snook – Fanfare, USA

“His works are emerging with an untarnished strength rivalled by few of his contemporaries.” Calum Macdonald – Music and Musicians International

The True Dark
“The True Dark, a song cycle of poems by Randall Swingler, is warm and intensely lyrical, a bit like Britten’s Serenade in its nocturnal enchantment. Stevens was a master at developing attractive, endlessly expanding ideas from small cells. As The True Dark shows, he was also skilful at sustaining an unified, seductive atmosphere.” American Record Review

The Shadow of the Glen
“This excellent and vividly dramatic recording of the first BBC broadcast performance in 1983 provides eloquent testimony to the composer’s fluid and highly expressive vocal writing.” Eric Levi, BBC Music Magazine

From the book: Bernard Stevens and his Music – a Symposium

“The balance he sought between the rational and spiritual formed the essence of his sensibility – this is especially evident in his Symphony of Liberation Op. 7.”

“To place [the 2nd Symphony] in the context of the time when it was composed, makes it an outstanding statement of individualism . . . the result is a major achievement and an important contribution to the symphonic repertoire.” Edwin Roxburgh

Bernard Stevens’ manuscripts have been acquired by the British Library