Robin Stevens: Orchestral Music, Volume Three
The compositional career of Robin Stevens (1958–2026), Welsh-born and Manchester-based, was divided into two periods, separated by a period of illness. The first produced mainly chamber music and works for the church that employed him; restored to health (briefly, as it transpired), he found an appetite for larger forms, writing three substantial concertos and a number of other orchestral works. The tone-poem Mourning into Dancing was his first for large orchestra, but he handles the medium with virtuosic assurance, generating a wildly exciting showpiece, a kaleidoscope of colour and rhythm. Stevens never lived to complete the symphony he had in mind, but his expansive, four-movement Viola Concerto is symphonic in outline, with the viola soloist both initiating and commenting on the action – rather like a distant cousin of Berlioz’s Harold en Italie. The more modest Concert Rondo for flute and small orchestra provides light relief between these two mighty scores.
Katherine Bryan, flute
Paul Silverthorne, viola
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
Mourning into Dancing (2011, rev. 2013) (14:47)
- Introduction: Allegro con spirito, drammatico – (0:46)
- Lament: Adagio lamentoso – (0:55)
- Processional: Adagio con moto – (4:41)
- Scherzo: Allegro con spirito, ma non troppo – (2:49)
- Jig and Chorale: Allegro vivo (5:35)
Concerto Rondo for Solo Flute and Small Orchestra (2016)
- Allegro con spirito, with sparkling vivacity (4:11)
Viola Concerto (2022-23) (46:45)
- I. Adagio con moto – Risoluto (Allegro non troppo) (16:30)
- II. Scherzo: Allegro moderato (4:00)
- III. Poco adagio (15:00)
- IV. Finale: Allegro molto – Poco meno mosso (11:15)
First Recordings,
Made in the Presence of the Composer
Fanfare :
‘Alice Neary is an exceptional player. She is much recorded, and much reviewed in Fanfare, and justifiably so. Paul Mann conducts with authority, and the two have real rapport: nowhere is this better confirmed than in the first movement’s closing pages. […]
Robin Stevens’s compositional voice is clear, his imagination vast. Performances and recordings here are stunning. […] Recommended, wholeheartedly.’
—Colin Clarke, Fanfare, April 2026
Fanfare :
‘Stéphane Rancourt plays [the Oceanic Lullaby] with lovely tonal warmth and an easy, unforced sense of line.
The Cello Concerto (2018–20) is the disc’s centerpiece, and what a substantial, absorbing piece it is. Stevens was himself a cellist, and you can feel the intimacy of that knowledge in every bar of the solo writing—this is music shaped by someone who understands the instrument from the inside, its capacity for sustained lyrical expression as much as its grittier, more declamatory registers. […] But the heart of the concerto is its third movement Adagio, an expansive, emotionally searching meditation in which the cello’s microtonal melody—microtones being an important feature of Stevens’s later style—is delivered by Alice Neary with remarkable lyrical sensitivity and technical command. […] Neary is magnificent throughout—poised, eloquent, technically formidable—and the concerto feels like a genuine addition to the repertoire. […]
[Into the Deep] is a predominantly slow-paced orchestral tone poem of considerable imaginative resource, and, in effect, a kind of concerto for orchestra—though not in any conventional sense. […] The RSNO under Paul Mann’s expert direction is superb—responsive, characterful, and wholly committed.
This is further evidence of Stevens’s range and accomplishment as a composer, work that should deepen a reputation I expect will continue to grow. I understand Toccata has at least one more disc of Stevens’s music in preparation. I look forward to it keenly.’
—Dominic Hartley, Fanfare, April 2026