Robin Stevens (b. 1958)
Orchestral Music Volume One
Dona Nobis Pacem: A Prayer for Peace (1994/2014)
Disrupted Chorale (2021)
Basson Concerto (2014-16)
Suite Écossaise (2010)
Adam Mackenzie (bassoon), Christopher Gough (French horn), Martin Murphy (French horn)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Paul Mann
rec. 2025, RSNO Centre, Glasgow
Toccata Classics TOCC0758 [58]

In the informative liner notes written by the composer Dr Stevens honestly charts his often-difficult compositional journey from teenager to adult PhD candidate. He explains why at various times different stylistic concerns have been important to him and why this disc contains works which sound very different from one another.

Dona Nobis Pacem: A Prayer for Peace scored for two horns and strings was inspired by the words of the Latin Mass. Dr Stevens has had considerable experience as a church musician and the musical starting point seems to be plain chant though here it is of the composer’s invention not a quotation. The two horns sail over shimmering bell-like sounds from the orchestra and I was reminded of Malcolm Williamson in church mood or perhaps mode. This is very affecting work that uses the small forces to great effect.

Disrupted Chorale (2021) for ten wind instruments is, by contrast, a short spiky, dissonant piece. In the notes the composer admits it is unlike most works in his output. With the crunchy chords and pointillistic melodic material Williamson, this time in public mode, once again came to mind. The wind instruments, particularly the lower ones are captured beautifully. To my ear, the chorale and its disruptions seem to want to be a longer work.

 The main work on the disc is the Basson Concerto which lasts over forty minutes and is, I think it is safe to say, the longest concertante work for that instrument. The composer observes that “it is extremely challenging for the soloist” and I would not disagree. Putting aside musical considerations the length alone places extreme demands on the soloist’s stamina. Each of the movements last about fourteen minutes; most bassoon concertos I know last less than fourteen minutes. Length aside, it is in the standard fast, slow, fast movement order.

The first movement is a lively sonata type movement with well contrasted themes and some highly inventive orchestration. A French John Williams came to mind. 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 Stevens has succeeded and the different elements are expertly held together; the fourteen minutes are over before you know it.

The slow movement contains diverting surprises both musical and structural. For instance, I was not expecting quarter tone bends in the opening melody. There is, however, nothing to scare the horses and anyone comfortable with Bartok’s night music movements will feel at home here. It has some more disturbing elements than the first movement, but this provides a welcome contrast.

In the finale, the bassoon lets its hair down and adopts some of the character we have come to expect from the instrument. A chattering theme holds the movement together in what seems like a rondo, but the composer takes us on some structural detours, and the ending is rather surprising.

It 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.

The disc ends with Suite Écossaise whichstarted life as a work for solo cello. There are no actual Scottish melodies, but the composer has conjured up the sound world of Scots folk music by employing characteristics of the genre, Scotch snaps, bagpipe drones and pibroch ornamentation etc. The central berceuse is elegantly shaped and really rather moving. The elegance of William Alwyn’s Scottish Dances came to mind more than the ebullience of Malcolm Arnold’s. All three movements 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

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