Alison Murray - Robin Stevens: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

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.

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. Stevens' substantial, four-movement Cello Concerto is something of a symphony-with-cello, casting the orchestra in kaleidoscopic discussion with the soloist. Here the Concerto sits between a charming orchestral miniature and a searching symphonic poem.

Thin Lips - Divorce Year [7-INCH SINGLE] date 02/19/2016