John Williams first performance of Stevie Concerto by Patrick Gowers (1987)

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Low ‘C’ sounds wonderful on the guitar.This recording was made shortly before I joined “John Williams and Friends” – heady days!
Thanks selftaughtgirl who says
“My recording of a live radio broadcast from the 1980s of the first performance by John Williams of the “Stevie” concerto by Patrick Gowers written in 1987. Sorry about the quality of the recording due to the noisy reception and the wobbly tape as well as the few seconds gap at the end as it didn’t quite fit on one side of a 60min tape. Hopefully Mr Williams’ great playing of a great piece still comes through.”

12 thoughts on “John Williams first performance of Stevie Concerto by Patrick Gowers (1987)”

  2. Just came across this interview with JW – http://www.runmovies.eu/?p=8300. About 2/3rds of the way down he mentions why he never recorded the Stevie concerto. Perhaps one of the new young lions of the guitar will take it up one day.

  3. just been trawling: I found a letter from Julian refusing to play my music at a LLandudno festival; a letter from JW in which he says he is not a fan of guitar ensemble…but no Patrick – yet!! There is no way I have thrown it, it is in a safe place…..

  4. I agree the Stevie Concerto is a remarkable piece and I do have an old cassette recording of it somewhere, probably lifted from a BBC broadcast. I wrote to Patrick Gowers myself complimenting him on it, but he was disparaging about the work and was happy to NOT see it surface again. It would be interesting if I can find Patrick’s letter! Undiscouraged I did try to chase the score and I had a promising lead which went cold….might be possible to reheat it!!

    • Very interesting. If you find your old casstte of this performance I could replace my version with yours as mine is not good quality. The BBC doesn’t have a copy ‘cos many years ago a friend of mine asked them to replay it but they said they didn’t keep the tapes.

  6. Gerald, the next time you see Mr Williams try and persuade him to record this, a small ask surely! I absolutely adore the 2nd movement, one of the reasons the tape ended up a bit wobbly is that I played it so much.

    • Thanks for the wonderful links, Paula – they bring back many memories, but are also record of great playing. I’m sure that JW has recorded the Stevie Concerto somewhere…I seem to remember Glenda Jackson starring in the film.

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