This review originally appeared in American Record Guide, November-December 2020 edition
Stevens: String Quartets and String Quintet
Behn Quartet, Timothee Botbol, vc
dda25203—76 minutes
English composer Robin Stevens received composition degrees in his early twenties and then was struck by illness; it was nearly two decades before he could continue his compositional schooling, starting his PhD in Composition from Manchester University in 2007. Though crucial creative years were spent in other ways, a family bequest has allowed for his catalog to begin to be recorded. I must mention here that I feel tenderhearted towards the last line of his biography, as it certainly conjures up a vivid image of Mr. Stevens and his (naturally) English sense of humor: “[He] enjoys current affairs, holds loquacious dinner parties, thrives on stimulating conversation, is a keen cyclist, preaches occasionally, and is currently trying to break the 23-minute barrier on his local Park Run”. The String Quintet in C Minor gives you goosebumps before the one-minute mark is even reached and String Quartet No. 1 makes it its job to turn dissonance into its own harmonic language. String Quartet No. 2, with movement titles like God-Seeker and Arguer make me wonder if the listener is being taken on an autobiographical journey in these four movements that hit the soul in a powerful way. My main takeaway from this disc is that it is a pity that Stevens lost such a large chunk of his composing career, and I’m glad that these pieces are now being brought into the public eye and public ear. - SAB