The August issue of Gramophone contains an excellent review of "Time, Still." Based in the UK, Gramophone has been the leading voice for classical music since 1923. The review is part of a special eight-page section devoted to recent recordings from the US and Canada.

I am very pleased and honored to receive such a positive review from Donald Rosenberg and Gramophone.


You might not expect a composer who has contributed to such action films as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon to be as comfortable in the, shall we say, less driven world of chamber, vocal and choral music. Then again, Bruce Babcock is an unexpected composer, as this disc of his music, entitled 'Time, Still', reflects in striking ways.

The six works reveal a musician who blends superior craftsmanship with a colourful, expressive sense of narrative. Each piece is scored for a different complement of instruments and/or singers. All are fresh in texture. Babcock's rhythmic vitality is core to Irrational Exuberance, scored for alto saxophone, cello and piano. The sax (wondrously played by Doug Masek) is also present, with soprano and piano, in This is what I know, four affecting and dramatic songs on poems of Dorothy Parker.

Babcock shows his Impressionistic stripes in Springscape, a glistening and atmospheric conversation for harp, flute and viola. The aura is completely different in All unto me, a soaring a cappella choral work dedicated to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Brief, but haunting in its sense of time and stillness, is Metaphor Two for solo piano. The three movements of Imagined/Remembered, for cello and piano, range from zesty and lyrical to dark-hued and jaunty, with all sorts of delicious rhythmic and harmonic twists to maintain suspense.

Along with saxophonist Masek, the disc's performers comprise a host of superb Los Angeles-based musicians, including the vibrant soprano Juliana Gondek and the fine Coventry and Canterbury Choirs of All Saints Church in Pasadena.

-Donald Rosenberg, August 2015

"Time, Still" - Navona Records #5998, released 4/14/15

Testimonials

Comments from Colleagues, Mentors and Reviewers . . .

ERIC WHITACRE - "WOW! Just loved this (“irrational exuberance”), Bruce! And "Send Me Anywhere" is absolutely gorgeous - I'd love to hear this live."

DAVE KOZ - On "irrational exuberance," "First of all, great title! What a lovely piece of music—just beautiful, Bruce. So thematic, and it really has a great flow of ideas that all work together so well."

DAN HIGGINS - "I love your piece. Nice to know that someone is out there still writing for the alto sax."

AARON COPLAND - "An impression of musicality which is very pleasant, indeed...a convincing sense of an overall mood... knows what he wants ... sure of what he's doing."

JOHN CORIGLIANO - "EVENT HORIZON is wonderful...a terrific sense of the orchestra."

HUGO FRIEDHOFER - “I hear a bit of the Viennese in that boy, and I refer of course to both the First and Second Viennese Schools.”

EARLE HAGEN - “Bruce Babcock is knowledgeable, studied, and in command of his art. He is an exceptional composer, orchestrator and arranger.”

LALO SCHRIFIN - “It was an Argentinian poet that said, "Genius is the one who knows how to select his influences." You have very well selected your influences.”

ANGELA LANSBURY - “I am enormously grateful for your work on "Murder, She Wrote" and feel it made an enormous difference to so many of our shows.”

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - "Settings of three Rilke poems... evoked poetic colors rare for the philosophical changes of the life journey."

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES - "The lyrical "SOLILOQUY" by Bruce Babcock (composed for James Galway) received a relaxed rendition from Lisa Edelstein"

THE SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS - "Mr. Babcock's TRIO (for clarinet, viola and piano, 2003) featured a multitude of original ideas matched by a keen sensitivity to the color and character of his chosen instruments. Listeners rejoiced in the perky, quirky spirit of this superbly crafted piece."

THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT - "Babcock has a unique and very pleasant voice."

THE KANSAS CITY TIMES - Haunting strings, sharply syncopating brass and rattling percussion...created a tense modernistic excitement.