Robin Stevens: Music for cello and piano

The CD opens with the large-scale Sonata Romantica (2019) for cello and piano. Summing up this composition in a few words is difficult. Robin Stevens provides three pages of text in the booklet to explain and analyse what is happening. The advertising blurb for this CD describes it as “a searing…a single-movement, half-hour epic of the genre.” And that is correct. Structurally, it would seem to consist of an introduction, exposition and development, but lacking in a formal recapitulation. Throughout, are echoes of themes, constantly heard. A feature of this sonata are solo passages for the cello unaccompanied as well as for the piano. Robin Stevens describes this as “conversational.” It is really what any sonata is about unless it is just a solo tune with vamped piano. There is much beauty here, yet sometimes I feel lost with the work’s progress. Is it too long? I am not sure. I guess a score would help. I feel deep down that successive hearings may reveal this piece to be one of the great Romantic cello sonatas in English music. But will listeners invest the time and study?

Three Epigrams for cello and piano were completed in 1994. They are extremely short, with the longest being just over a minute long. The titles are Foreboding, Gentle Lament and Clockwork Toy. These Epigrams are not Webern-esque in form or aesthetic. Ingeniously, they balance melodic tonality with dissonant piano accompaniments.

A good example of Stevens’s eclecticism is found in Carried on a Whimsy for solo cello. Written in 2016, and revised four years later, this miniature plays various compositional devices off against each other. Microtones are used. Some lyricism is present as well as virtuosic passages and vivid statements. The work ends gloomily.

The Three Character Pieces for cello and piano (2004, rev.2021) are atonal, with just a hint of a key here and there. Each piece’s title is grander than the resulting music: Thunder in the Soul, Wistful Chorale, and A Short Ride in a Dangerous Machine. There is (to my ear) nothing wistful about the chorale: it is intense and quite disturbing. The finale is really a brash moto-perpetuo. Is it meant to echo John Adams’s Short Ride in a Dangerous Machine? I think not. There is nothing even post-minimalist about Stevens’s angular and unpredictable score.

Talking about comparisons there is little allusion to Elgar’s heart-breaking Sospiri for strings, harp and organ, in Robin Stevens’s take on “Sighs.” This is a study in glissandi for cello. It lacks a sense of direction and seems to be a technical exercise.

Microtones appear once again in his On the Wild Side for cello and piano (2018, rev. 2020). Definitely “expressionist music” (avoiding "traditional forms of beauty" to convey powerful feelings), there is much scurrying of cello accompanied by brief staccato piano chords. The liner notes rightly describe this as a “cataclysmic whirlwind of a piece, which concludes with the listeners having a door firmly slammed in their faces...” One of the most “fun” numbers on this CD.

A Probing Exchange for solo cello (2016) is a highly charged miniature, full of dissonance, dashing passagework, and arpeggiated chords. It is over in a flash.

The Balmoral Suite for cello and piano (2017) is pure light music: a long way from any “ism.” This was a commission from John Turner and was originally for recorder and piano. Stevens insists that this Suite is a pastiche on Scottish folk music with an occasional contemporary twist thrown in for good measure. It opens with an overture - A Family Gathers, which parodies several musical forms including a march. There is no need to ponder over which family is intended. The second movement Grandpa Hankers for the Past is a portrait of Prince Charles. A distinct nod here to rococo music. Then follows a graceful and quite lovely tribute to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The penultimate movement, Enter Great-Grandpa is a respectful homage to the late Prince Philip. Listen for the scotch-snaps and a gentle gait of “a gentleman in extreme old age, still endeavouring to live life to the full.” The finale, Rough and Tumble in the Nursery, reflects the “younger family members” full of joie de vivre. It is always the sign of a good composer, when they can turn their hand from their involved “art music” to something that is immediately approachable and quite simply entertaining.

The first of four short pieces that conclude this recital is Much Ado About…? (2016). Devised for solo cello, this is the least successful on this disc. It does not appear to have an end in sight hence, the question mark. Stevens indicates that it is full of “cheeky insouciance.”

Say Yes to Life for cello and piano (2005) was written for a friend experiencing a difficult pregnancy. The composer throws all sorts of rhythmic and melodic snatches at the listener. The liner notes suggest that this vibrant work is programmatic: I suggest listening to it absolutely as a kind of toccata.

I would never have guessed that Unfailing Stream for solo cello (2016) was “a probing, almost mystical composition…whose continuous flow of melody depicts the Holy Spirit constantly working to inspire faith and love in the life of a Christian.” I found it quite beautiful, but just a little long-winded.

The two-minute Birthday Trifle for cello and piano (2018) commemorates Stevens’s own sixtieth. Despite the intrusion of modernist microtones, this is fun. The jazzy opening and sub-pop tunes lend delight to this little “encore.”

Details of Robin Stevens’s life and work can be found on his excellent webpage. I have concentrated on the music rather than the playing in this review. All the works would seem to be premiere recordings, so there is nothing to compare. Yet, from my perusal of all this music, I conclude that Nicholas Trygstad, cello and David Jones, piano are sympathetic to Stevens’s complex, involved, technically demanding and often wide-ranging style. The recital is helped by a vibrant and clear recording.

Detailed notes by the composer, brief biographies of all concerned, several photographs and inspiring cover graphics by Iain Andrews make this CD booklet ideal.

Robin Stevens’s style is characterised by “Beethovenian motivic development; rhapsodic, modal lyricism; bold, dramatic gestures; tangy harmonies; intricate counterpoint; and unashamedly direct, open-hearted expression.” It is an absorbing and satisfying combination.

Track Listing:
Robin STEVENS (b.1958)
Sonata Romantica for cello and piano (2019)
Three Epigrams for cello and piano (1994)
Carried on a Whimsy for solo cello (2016, rev. 2020)
Three Character Pieces for cello and piano (2004, rev. 2021)
Sospiri for solo cello (2016)
On the Wild Side for cello and piano (2018, rev. 2020)
A Probing Exchange for solo cello (2016)
Balmoral Suite for cello and piano (2017)
Much Ado About ...? for solo cello (2016)
Say Yes to Life for cello and piano (2005)
Unfailing Stream for solo cello (2016)
A Birthday Trifle for cello and piano (2018)
Nicholas Trygstad, (cello) David Jones (piano)
rec. 28 January, 23 February and 8 April 2021, Hallé St. Peter’s, Manchester, England.
DIVINE ART DDA25217