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Benjamin Lees
Benjamin Lees was born on January 8, 1924 and spent his early years in San Francisco, moving to Los Angeles with his family in 1939. He began piano studies at the age of five with K.I. Rodetsky, continuing with Marguerite Bitter in Los Angeles. He attended the University of Southern California after military service in World War II and later began four years of intensive private study with George Antheil. Following a Fromm Foundation Award in 1953 and his first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954 the composer and his wife left for Europe. He remained there for seven years, creating new works in a village near Paris. During this period his compositions were performed on RTF, Paris and the BBC, London.
Lees returned to the United States in 1962, joining the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore as the W. Alton Jones Professor of Composition. In the years following, major performances of his works were given by the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Lees is particularly admired for his works featuring concertante group and orchestra: his Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1964) has been performed by more than 35 ensembles. Other works in this series include his Concerto for Woodwind quintet and Orchestra (1976) commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and his Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1983. Another frequently heard score is the Passacaglia for Orchestra, a 1976 piece commissioned by Antal Dorati for the National Symphony Orchestra.
Lees' scores often make intensive use of particular intervals and their inversions; this technique combines with the presence of contrapuntal devices such as canons, fugues, and stretti to create a sense of expanded tonality. In his orchestral works he often constructs monumental sonorities, with shifting meters shaping an underlying pulse. The British critic Bret Johnson has written, “The Lees' style is instantly recognizable and every work is possessed of lofty grandeur.”
Among his works of the past decade, Symphony No. 4 (Memorial Candles) commissioned and premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1985, is of major significance. Since its premiere it has been performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia (London), Houston Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony No. 5 (Kalmar Nyckel) was commissioned and performed in 1988 by the Delaware Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the founding of Wilmington, Known originally as New Sweden. String Quartet No. 4, commissioned by Chamber Music America for the Aurora String Quartet, was given its world premiere on March 11, 1990 in San Francisco. Lees' Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, received its world premiere on May 14, 1992, with Lorin Maazel conducting and William Caballero as soloist. Following the work's premiere in Pittsburgh, Maazel and company performed it on tour in England and Germany.
His most recent orchestral works include Borealis, which was commissioned by the Wichita Symphony and had its premiere in October 1993; and Echoes of Normandy, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day. The latter work, scored for solo tenor, organ, pre-recorded tape, and orchestra, had its premiere under the direction of Andrew Litton in June 1994. Another 50th anniversary is commemorated by Lees' newest orchestral work, Celebration, commissioned by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in honor of the ensemble's semicentennial. The new score was premiered October 19, 1996. The composer has also been commissioned to write a new work for the Orchestra of Monte-Carlo on the occasion of Monaco's 700th anniversary. It will be premiered July 16, 1997.
In addition to his post at the Peabody Conservatory, Lees has taught composition at Queens College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School. Mr. Lees has been awarded, among other prizes, two Guggenheim Fellowships; the UNESCO Award (Paris) for String Quartet No. 2; the Sir Arnold Bax Medal; Copley Foundation Award; and a Fulbright Fellowship. Major articles on his works have been written for Tempo magazine by Deryck Cooke, Nicolas Slonimsky, Niall O'Loughlin and Bret Johnson.
Piano Sonata No. 4
Completed in the summer of 1963, the Piano Sonata No. 4 consists of three movements: Allegro con energico, Adagio, and Allegro deciso. Although Mr. Lees has been composing other piano works, this is the first in sonata form since the Sonata Breve, written in 1956 and premiered that year in New York. In the Piano Sonata No. 4 there are certain deviations from the formal sonata structure. The opening movement, for example, while consisting of two major subjects, has a number of subsidiary figures that are interwoven into the general fabric. Tempo changes are abrupt, dynamic levels fluctuate sharply, and the meter shifts constantly. The feeling of tonality is vague. In the second movement there is only one major subject, yet other figures appear. The whole is treated almost in the manner of a fantasia, for the element of surprise is ever-present. The finale is a large-scale rondo, bordering on a sonata movement in its general implications and treatment. Two elements are primary in this movement — subject and meter. A basic 5/8 meter constantly expands and contracts, giving the movement continual momentum and drive; from the outset to the conclusion of the movement a relentless feeling persists. The Piano Sonata No. 4 was written for, and is dedicated to, Mr. Gary Graffman.
Piano Sonata No. 4 was commissioned by the Ford Foundation for Gary Graffman and given its world premiere in 1963 in Norfolk, Virginia. The New York premiere took place April 3, 1964 at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mirrors, in six sections
The piece was written for Ian Hobson. The first four sections were completed in 1992 and premiered by Mr. Hobson that year in Orchestra Hall, Chicago. Since that date two new sections were written, bringing the total to six. A seventh section has been sketched out and will soon be ready. Since this is an open-ended work there is no foretelling how many sections will finally comprise the entire composition.
The work itself is a reflection of personal musical ideas, certain pianistic techniques, and their presentation via each section in a compact form.
Fantasy Variations
Dedicated to Emanuel Ax, this work was completed October 31, 1983. Fantasy Variations consists of an original subject, seventeen variations and a short coda. The word `fantasy' was chosen because of the character of many of the variations. There is a fascination in writing variations, yet the composer must be careful not to allow the work to descend into mere exercises or games. Each variation must be a logical and natural permutation of the original subject, and the subject must be recognizable at all times no matter how complex the variation may become.
This work tries to explore specific areas of variation: harmonic, rhythmic and metric, combining these with augmentation and diminution. Various pianistic avenues have been explored as, for example, in Variation X where the left hand must play pianissimo while the right hand hammers out a sforzando. Or Variation IX, where both hands separated by an interval of an augmented fourth, play simultaneously in a fast tempo. And Variation III, which calls for constant alternation of hands over the entire range of the keyboard in a quick, turbulent tempo. These and other examples become evident as the work unfolds and progresses.
But all this is technical. In the end one hopes that what emerges and holds the listener's attention is the music itself. For myself, at least, the focus is on clarity of thought, tension, emotion, lyricism, visceral excitement, logical exposition and a “face” or profile. I have always considered these the basic building blocks of music.
The world premiere of Fantasy Variations was given by Emanuel Ax on February 1, 1984 at Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York.
Ian Hobson
Ian Hobson is a musician of tremendous versatility who has earned an international reputation as a pianist, conductor, and teacher. Born in Wolverhampton, England, Hobson studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge University in England, and at Yale University in the United States. His international career was launched in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, having already garnered silver medals at both the Artur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. His teachers have included Sidney Harrison, Ward Davenny, Claude Frank, and Menahem Pressler.
Hobson's programs consistently demonstrate a repertoire that spans the centuries and demands an extraordinary command of styles and scholarly vision, in addition to great keyboard prowess. His recordings and recital performances encompass a cross section of works from mammoth to miniature: a series of works from The London Pianoforte School, the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, all of the Brahms Variations for Piano, as well as Rachmaninoff's Seventeen Etudes-Tableaux and Twenty-four Preludes, Chopin-Godowsky's Etudes, Bach's Goldberg Variations, and contemporary works written for him by Ridout, Lees, Liptak, and Gardner.
Major orchestras of the world with which Ian Hobson has appeared include the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Scottish national, Royal Liverpool, Halle, ORD-Vienna, Das Orchester der Beethovenhalle, Israel Sinfonietta, New Zealand Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Houston.
Increasingly, Hobson is in demand as a conductor, particularly for performances in which he doubles as piano soloist. He is Professor of Music at the University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana and a recording artist with more than 20 recordings available on the Arabesque, Catalyst and EMI labels.
Notes: Benjamin Lees
Cover art: The Blessed Kingdom by S.C. Schoneberg © 1996 (an original paramandala series collage & mixed media on paper
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