Reviews
STELLA DALLAS (ORCHESTRAL VERSION AT IL CINEMA RITROVATO 2023)
“… I can’t imagine many groups being as moved by Stella Dallas as we were, weeping as Stephen Horne’s beautiful live orchestral score sang through the Piazza.”
Esmé Holden (Little White Lies)
THE MANXMAN (ORCHESTRAL VERSION AT THE 2022 PORDENONE SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“… it represents the very pinnacle of silent film scoring. It may or may not be the best score ever – though there’s certainly none to top it – but it is by far the best this film’s ever had.”
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (PERFORMANCE WITH ELIZABETH-JANE BALDRY AT THE 2022 HIPPFEST SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“… an exquisitely delicate but wonderfully grotesque live soundtrack… It was a beautifully fluid, ever-changing soundscape that matched Epstein’s strange, dream-like proto-horror brilliantly, as well as mirroring its weird mix of captivating beauty and repellent decay.”
David Kettle (The Scotsman)
VARIETY AND STELLA DALLAS (PERFORMANCES AT THE HIPPODROME FESTIVAL OF SILENT FILM 2016)
“Stephen Horne is an artist who consistently raises the bar.”
Georgina Coburn (georginacoburnarts.co.uk)
THE SWALLOW AND THE TITMOUSE (PERFORMANCE WITH DIANA ROWAN AT THE 2015 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“Stephen Horne on piano, accordion, and flute and Diana Rowan on harp provided a score that was as beautiful, natural, and perfect as the movie.”
Jason Wiener (Jason Watches Movies blog)
ALGOL (PERFORMANCE AT THE BARBICAN CINEMA)
“His performance was a blur of sensitive tonality as he switched between themes as easily as instruments: modern silent cinema’s most elegantly-innovative one-man band!”
Paul Joyce (ithankyouarthur.blogspot)
THE MANXMAN (PERFORMANCE AT THE EMPIRE LEICESTER SQUARE / LONDON FILM FESTIVAL)
“It is very rare to hear a score for a silent film that you think of as definitive, but that really felt like the case… anything else will simply be redundant.”
Letter from Robin Baker (Head Curator, BFI National Archive)
“… we have Stephen Horne performing his lushly romantic score with the aid of a small band of musicians. Always deeply melodic… it’s good enough that I’d buy it as a piece of music in its own right, even without the pictures attached.”
(spank-the-monkey.typepad.com)
PRIX DE BEAUTE (PERFORMANCE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“Folks, to hear this man play the grand piano is like listening to angels sing! His score for the film was brilliant!”
Philip Castor (philsfilmadventures.blogspot)
SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
“… the festival is anchored by exceptional musical accompaniment – a special bow to Stephen Horne, whose multi-instrumentalist talents were as inventive and tasteful as they were unerring in keeping pace with the material.”
Michael T. O’Toole (Film International)
JENSEITS DER STRASSE (PERFORMANCE AT THE PORDENONE SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“… multi-instrumentalist Stephen Horne used flute, accordion, percussion and a small strung instrument like a zither, as well as piano, to move this sophisticated and often cynical audience from laughter to tears in the space of a few bars.”
Sam Edwards (stuff.co.nz/waikato-times)
SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
“Stephen Horne displayed dazzling virtuosity in his accompaniment for a variety of films… creating orchestral effects with the piano soundboard and accompanying himself on flute and accordion!”
Leonard Maltin (www.leonardmaltin.com)
IL FUOCO (PERFORMANCE WITH JILL TRACY AT THE 2011 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“It’s like an Ennio Morricone score for a giallo: erotic, threatening, haunting… A perfect evocation of the drama playing out onscreen.”
Sean Axmaker (www.slantmagazine.com)
THE FIRST BORN (PERFORMANCE AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL / LONDON FILM FESTIVAL)
“It’s extraordinary how you forget that the music isn’t issuing from the picture and hasn’t always belonged to the film – a testament to the exceptional sensitivity and invention of Horne’s original score.”
Thirza Wakefield (Sight and Sound blog)
“The exquisite new score is the finishing touch in the rebirth of The First Born.”
Pamela Hutchinson (Silent London)
“… Stephen Horne whose musical support of The First Born… was nothing short of exhilarating.”
Paul Joyce (ithankyouarthur.blogspot)
“A brand new score… provided a rich, unusual compliment to the film’s many moments of romance and suspense.”
Michael Mand (permanentplastichelmet.com)
A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR (VARIOUS PERFORMANCES)
“Stephen Horne’s dazzling live piano accompaniment was one of the highest points in the history of Italy’s pioneering [Pordenone] silent film festival.”
Paolo Cherchi-Usai
“Stephen Horne provides the accompaniment to this film on piano. His playing was magnificent and the score he came up with meshed perfectly with the movie. He was truly inspired with the theatre scene too.”
John Sinnott (DVDTalk.com)
“This year’s [Pordenone Silent] festival boasted what was, to my ears and eyes, one of the most felicitous marriages between film and musician I have yet witnessed: Stephen Horne’s work with Anthony Asquith’s masterpiece, A Cottage on Dartmoor.”
Jay Weissberg (sensesofcinema.com)
“Stephen Horne… played with fervor and expertise, no sheet music in front of him, his eyes fixed to the screen. Horne’s composition… seemed made for the movie, twisting and turning with hope and dread across stark landscapes to an ending you might not expect.”
Allison Brophy Champion (Culpeper Star-Exponent)
J’ACCUSE! (PERFORMANCE AT THE PORDENONE SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“Stephen Horne managed something amazing by giving real poetry and subtlety to the whole film… the film was transformed by his playing.”
Christine Leteux
“The film itself is powerful, but with Stephen Horne’s accompaniment it achieved the sublime.”
Rob Byrne
THE NAIL IN THE BOOT (PERFORMANCE AT THE PORDENONE SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“Talking of extraordinary things, Stephen Horne‘s music was a multi-instrumental tour de force.Some may have though that there was a… trio accompanying the film, but no, it was the one man.”
Luke McKernan (bioscopic.wordpress.com)
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (PERFORMANCE AT THE 2009 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“His work as a composer/accompanist for silent film is so exhilarating that… I would urge you to purchase tickets to hear him accompany any film whatsoever… there was no mistaking the fact that the visuals Epstein placed upon the screen had been dwarfed by the sheer magnificence of Stephen Horne’s musical score.”
George Heymont (myculturallandscape.blogspot.com)
JUJIRO (PERFORMANCE AT THE 2008 SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL)
“Stephen Horne did an absolutely phenomenal job with the score… He started the film off playing the flute, and then added the piano in a little at a time. Yes, he was playing both the piano and a flute simultaneously, each with one hand… A bravura performance that was astonishing to experience.”
John Sinnott (DVDTalk.com)
“Pianist and Silent FIlm accompanist Stephen Horne just brought Kinugasa’s “Jujiro” (“Crossways”) to life with a stunning performance that brought out the film’s mesmerizing, experimental visual language and draining emotional content… There have been a lot of fine performances by orchestras, organists, quartets and pianists at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival this year, but this one (Horne’s third), I’ll never forget.”
Jeremy Mathews (thesamedame.com)