Composer Robin Stevens, born in Wales in 1958 and now based in Manchester, had his compositional career divided into two distinct phases, separated by a period of illness. In his early phase, he composed primarily chamber music and church music for the parish where he worked. After his recovery, he developed an interest in larger forms and wrote three extensive concertos and several other orchestral works.

Stevens' large-scale, four-movement Cello Concerto is something of a younger cousin to Britten's Cello Symphony, in which the orchestra engages in a kaleidoscopic dialogue with the soloist, ranging from humorous to heroic in character. On this album, it sits between a charming orchestral miniature "Oceanic Lullaby" for oboe and small orchestra and a searching symphonic poem "Into the Deep." In all three works, Stevens' masterful command of orchestral timbres allows the musical discourse to unfold almost like a wordless drama.