David Stanhope
David Stanhope is an Australian conductor, composer and pianist whose career also takes in horn and bass trombone. He has led opera, ballet, film scores and orchestras across Australia, and is widely known for his wind-band and brass writing.
He joined the music staff of The Australian Opera in 1986 and later gave the Australian stage premiere of Berg’s Lulu, among many other seasons. A guest with the major Australian symphony orchestras and The Australian Ballet, he has also conducted film soundtracks including Babe and Passion.
His compositions, often coloured by Percy Grainger, include Olympic commissions for Sydney 2000 and much music for wind and brass, heard on Little Ripper! (TP107) and Sydney Brass Plays Stanhope (TP199). As a pianist he has recorded formidable transcription repertoire on discs such as Virtuoso Transcriptions (TP088), David Stanhope Plays (TP135) and TEN (TP230).
He has used a digital orchestra to bring neglected Australian works and his own opera Dracula (TP262) to disc, alongside live concert recordings with the Sydney Symphony.
Artist's website: www.davidstanhope.com
David Stanhope is featured on the following titles
Twenty-Five (DVD)
After a break from the Chopin Op. 10 études and Godowsky studies, David Stanhope returns to some of the most fiendish piano repertoire: the Godowsky Studies on Chopin's Études, Op. 25.
Narrator: commentator
Producer
Recording Engineer
Editing Engineer: editing
Ten (DVD)
David Stanhope returns to the keyboard for some of the most technically fiendish piano repertoire: Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin’s Études, Op. 10. Written to open up new possibilities of pianism, they still astonish modern listeners.
Narrator: commentator
Porgy & Bess Fantasy: Music for Two Pianos
In the early 1980s two of Australia’s finest pianists joined forces in masterpieces of the piano-duet literature. The set draws on concert and studio sessions from a period when such collaborations were still readily captured.
David Stanhope: Live in Concert
In an era of ubiquitous digital streaming, it is good to be reminded of the energy and excitement of live performance. This concert, with its scintillating late-Romantic repertoire, recalls what a diet of studio recordings can leave out.
Credit: Annotations
Galop!: Virtuosic Orchestral Transcriptions
Stanhope is one of the very few Australian composers who takes on the challenge of transcribing piano works for orchestra. Composers once did this themselves to open other performing paths for popular pieces. Imagination, craft and creativity make the results thrilling.
Arranger: orchestral transcriptions
Australian Premières, Vol. 2
This CD proves a concerto can be recorded with a soloist and a digital orchestra, and at the same time brings to light four remarkable works never recorded before, two of them never performed. Patiently languishing in archives, they can now see the light of day.
Dracula
Not only a world premiere, but the first opera commercially presented with a digital orchestra: David Stanhope’s Dracula, with two companion works.
Composer
Australian Fantasia: Orchestral Works by David Stanhope
Orchestral works by David Stanhope and four of his transcriptions, realised with a digital orchestra. Apart from Olympic Fireworks, written for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony, these scores had not been heard in public performance.
Composer
Arranger
Australian Premières, Vol. 1
None of these three Australian symphonies has ever been heard in public. Once you know them, their neglect is hard to explain. David Stanhope’s digital orchestra gives the scores a first hearing and makes their musical worth plain.
TEN
Making a welcome return to the keyboard, David Stanhope tackles some of the most technically fiendish repertoire in the piano literature – Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin’s Études Op. 10.
Sydney Brass Plays Stanhope
David Stanhope has been writing music for brass ensembles for over 30 years. The works are performed widely and remain a favourite of brass players around the world.
Composer
Arranger: Transcription
Co-Producer: Co-producer
Credit: Liner Notes
A Virtuoso Recital: David Stanhope Piano
This is the third solo CD that David has recorded for Tall Poppies (see also Virtuoso Transcriptions, TP088, and David Stanhope Plays, TP135). The centrepiece is Rachmaninoff's Preludes, Op. 32, which he plays magnificently.
Arranger: Transcription
David Stanhope Plays
David Stanhope is known throughout Australia as one of the few resident conductors of note. His talents are much broader: a prolific composer, especially of wind band music (see TP107), and a pianist of formidable technique.
Producer
Credit: Liner Notes
Little Ripper!
David Stanhope’s wind-band music was taking the band world by storm. His main influence is Grainger, yet as a horn and trombone player he brings a sharp ear for what truly works for band.
Producer: Producer
Virtuoso Transcriptions
These ‘one take’ studio recordings were made for ABC broadcast about a decade before release. That they stand as a finished album is a tribute to David Stanhope’s prodigious musicianship and technique.
Arranger
Mastering Engineer: Mastering Producer
Credit: Liner Notes
Performing as Tall Poppies Ensemble
An occasional studio ensemble of Australian chamber musicians, the Tall Poppies Ensemble records Australian chamber music with crisp brilliance and outstanding precision: outback pulse, contemplative stillness, Asian-inflected lyricism and political colour.
Red Earth
A world-premiere recording of important Australian works for instrumental ensemble. Performers and repertoire were hand-selected for the project, which was funded by the Australia Council.
David Stanhope also appears on
Harbour
This CD features the remarkable voice of the septuagenarian tenor Gerald English in works written especially for him by Andrew Ford. A star-studded gathering of musicians accompanies him and also plays three solo works.
Crossing a Bridge of Dreams
This CD gathers some of Anne Boyd's most enduring works, mostly from the 1980s. Many pieces reflect her passion for Asian music, heard especially in the flute writing. Premiere performers return for the recording, among them John Harding on viola in My Name Is Tian.
Windows in Time
austraLYSIS is the brainchild of Roger Dean, and exists in several incarnations, including a live electronics band. Here they are in their standard chamber music format and have chosen a programme in which the linchpins are Xenakis and the music of New Zealand composer Lyell Cresswell.
The Battlers: Music from the TV Mini-Series
This music originated as the soundtrack for a television mini-series. Easy on the ear, it shows Vine as a consummate film composer, with a gift for mood that is an outstanding feature of the disc.
David Stanhope is a member of
Tall Poppies Ensemble
An occasional studio ensemble of Australian chamber musicians, the Tall Poppies Ensemble records Australian chamber music with crisp brilliance and outstanding precision: outback pulse, contemplative stillness, Asian-inflected lyricism and political colour.