Robin Stevens: Orchestral Music, Volume Two
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 produced mainly 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. Stevens’ big-boned, four-movement Cello Concerto is something of a younger cousin of Britten’s Cello Symphony, casting the orchestra in kaleidoscopic discussion with the soloist, in moods that range from the humorous to the heroic. Here it sits between a charming orchestral miniature and a searching symphonic poem. In all three works Stevens’ mastery of orchestral colour allows the musical discourse to unfold almost as wordless drama.
Alice Neary, cello
Stéphane Rancourt, oboe
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
Oceanic Lullaby for solo oboe and small orchestra (1999, orch. 2009) (2:26)
- Poco adagio (swelling like the sea)
Cello Concerto (2018-20) (36:23)
- I. Andante maestoso – Moderato (11:04)
- II. Scherzo. Allegro vivo (2:41)
- III. Adagio (11:13)
- IV. Finale. Allegro molto moderato (11:25)
Into the Deep (2025) (18:57)
- Poco andante (with tension and suspense)
First Recordings
Recorded in the Presence of the Composer
Gramophone :
‘[In the cello concerto] Alice Neary responds with a performance of remarkably assured sympathy and musicality. Stéphane Rancourt makes a fine case for Oceanic Lullaby (1999, orch 2009), a beautifully lyrical miniature I can easily imagine picking up a deal of airtime. Into the Deep (2025), Stevens’s last completed composition, is a full-bodied tone poem that showcases one last time this composer’s fine if individual orchestral imagination, […]. It is a fascinating, moving orchestral fantasy, which Stevens dedicated to conductor Paul Mann to thank him for his advocacy of his music. 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