9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captain Corelli comes to life!, April 11, 2000
This review is from: Music from the Novels of Louis Bernieres / Stephens, Ogden (Audio CD)
An essential companion to "Captain Corelli's Mandolin". Hearing the music on this CD really brought parts of the story to life for me, and I feel confident that anyone who enjoyed the book will derive pleasure from this disc. Hear the polka with which Corelli impresses Pelagia and the concerto he plays to Dr Iannis (after irritating him by insisting on tapping out the orchestral introduction, played here on the guitar). All of the music is taken from or inpired by the novels of Louis de Bernieres, but it would be wrong to think that this is an album only for literary fanatics - there is a tremendous range of styles, and the listener's attention is held throughout on purely musical grounds. As someone who had never heard solo mandolin music before I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic and tonal range the instrument produced. Alison Stephens gives a virtuoso performance of relatively unknown music which deserves a much wider audience. There is also classical guitar music (sensitively played by Craig Stephens), most with a Latin American feel, and some very succesful arrangements for guitar and mandolin (the Hummel and Vivaldi concertos), as well as some more familiar tunes. The beautiful short pieces by Perichini, Calace and Palumbo (all recorded for the first time here) are particularly worth hearing. This is a CD I have returned to over and over again, and I would recommend it unhesitatingly
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