Robin Stevens: Orchestral Music, Volume One
The compositional career of Robin Stevens, Welsh-born (in 1958) and Manchester-based, is divided into two periods, separated by a period of illness. The first mainly produced chamber music and works for the church that employed him; restored to health, he found an appetite for larger forms, writing three substantial concertos and a number of other orchestral works – all now recorded for Toccata Classics. This first album sets his expansive Bassoon Concerto amid three shorter works, each of them revealing how his command of orchestral colour and melodic line can suggest landscapes and narratives. In the slow movement of the Concerto in particular, there are passages of deep feeling and intensity, but Stevens also has a healthy sense of fun, which often emerges unexpectedly to energise his music.
Adam Mackenzie, bassoon
Christopher Gough & Martin Murphy, horns
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
- Dona Nobis Pacem: A Prayer for Peace for Two Horns and Small Orchestra (1994, rev. 2024) (3:57)
- Disrupted Chorale for Wind Decet (2021) (3:46)
Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (2014-16) (41:15)
- I. Moderato con moto (14:47)
- II. Lament. Adagio non troppo – (14:17)
- III. Finale. Allegro amicable – (12:11)
Suite Écossaise (2010) (8:24)
- I. Mouvement à la Mode. Moderato, ben marcato (4:07)
- II. Berceuse. Adagio con moto (2:24)
- III. Gigue. Allegro vivo, alla danza (1:56)
First Recordings made in the Presence of the Composer
Gramophone :
‘The performances speak for themselves: committed, well-prepared, stunningly played to give these works the best possible start, in first-rate sound engineered by Phil Hardman (Vol 1) and Hedd Morfett-Jones (Vol 2) and producer Michael Ponder. Recommended.’
—Guy Rickards, Gramophone
MusicWeb Internatioanl :
‘[Dona Nobis Pacem: A Prayer for Peace] is very affecting work that uses the small forces to great effect. […]
The bassoon has long been associated with humorous music, and it is rather tricky to write lively music for it which does not sound amusing – but [in the bassoon concerto’s first movement] Stevens has succeeded and the different elements are expertly held together; the fourteen minutes are over before you know it. […]
[The bassoon concerto] is an engaging work that hangs together over its forty minutes by imaginative orchestration and the extraordinary demands placed on the soloist. The bassoon sounds quite different in its high and low registers, and the work regularly makes full use of the entire range. The use of the extreme upper register had me worried at times for the soloist’s lips. Adam Mackenzie principal bassoon of Opera North is, however, a fearless soloist and the first desk winds of the RSNO relish the solos the work allows them, particularly in the slow movement. […]
All three movements [of Suite Écossaise] are played with great aplomb.
The disc is superbly recorded and presented, and all the performers respond well to the music and the disciplined conducting of Paul Mann. I look forward to volumes two and three of Dr Stevens orchestral music which has already been recorded.
—Paul RW Jackson, MusicWeb International