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Robert Hall Lewis graduated with Distinction in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, where his principal teacher was Bernard Rogers. He later studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and with Hans Erich Apostel in Vienna, where he received the graduation prize in composition from the Vienna Academy of Music. His music has been performed by orchestras and chamber groups both here and abroad, most notably by the American Composers Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Kol Israel Orchestra, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Chicago Ensemble, Concord String Quartet, New York New Music Ensemble, Parnassus, Klarinetten Trio (Frankfurt), Gruppe Neue Musik (Berlin), Nuova Consonanza (Rome), Die Reihe (Vienna), and many more. Programs of the Zagreb International Festival, Budapest Spring International Festival, Berlin Inventions Festival, and the ISCM Festival in Seoul, Korea, have included his music. Mr. Lewis has received many honors, including a Fulbright Scholarship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Walter Hinrichsen Award (presented by Columbia University), an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and two Fellowship-Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome, the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Italy, and the Grand Teton and Tidewater Music Festivals. Noteworthy are his CD's on the CRI and New World labels of twelve orchestral and choral works performed by the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta and London Symphony Orchestras with him conducting. Recent performances of his music have been in Rotterdam, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, Zürich and Washington, D.C. A frequent lecturer at American and European institutions, Lewis has composed over eighty works of which fifty-nine are published. Included in his oeuvre are four symphonies and four string quartets as well as nine compositions for solo wind instruments. A resident of Baltimore, Maryland, Lewis is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore.
Combinazioni II for Eight Percussionists and Piano was composed in the summer of 1974 on request from John Beck and the Eastman Percussion Ensemble, and was given its first performance in Rochester in October, 1974. The composer has written: "Having these fine performers and rhythmic resources of my disposal, I decided to try for the first time many things I had previously contemplated but never put into practice. The organization of three independent musical units, each with a different tempo appealed to me as a beginning and ending. Wishing to avoid a conventional percussion approach, I strove for kaleidoscopic textures, a wide dynamic range, and novel homophonic and polyphonic combinations." The work is in one movement with six sections, and is dedicated to Mr. Beck and the Eastman Percussion Ensemble.
Combinazioni II was recorded on May 19, 1975, at the Eastman School of Music, Ros Ritchie, recording engineer.
Combinazioni IV for Cello and Piano was commissioned by the Hans Kindler Foundation of Washington, D.C., to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1978. The work was composed in Baltimore and London during the spring and summer of 1977. In this duo, the composer has endeavored to imbue the instruments with richness and depth of expressive content, of which the main features are lyricism, dramatic statement, rhythmic variety and interesting contrasts in form and timbre. The composition consists of seven movements of which the third and fifth are for solo cello and piano respectively. The longer fourth movement, a theme and five variations, explores harmonic and colorful sonic situations hinted at in other parts of the work.
Combinazioni IV was recorded on October 26, 1978, at the Concert Hall of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Alan Kefauver, recording engineer.
One of Lewis' shorter compositions, Fantasiemusik II, was completed in December, 1978. The first performance was given four years later by the Philadelphia clarinetist Arne Running and pianist James Freeman on a concert of the Penn Contemporary Players at Swarthmore College.
In three sections, the composition contains a rich array of colors, moods and textures. The various features of the work include an agile rhythmic manner, a high sustained melody for the clarinet in the central section and widely differentiated chords and figurations in the piano. A rather fantastic character is reached near the conclusion with both instruments sharing a frenetic rhythmic design, although a more subtle, quiet contrast is heard in the final two measures.
David Hancock was the recording engineer.
Duetto da Camera for Violin and Piano
Commissioned by the McKim Fund of the Library of Congress, Lewis's Duetto da Camera was composed mainly in the summer of 1976; certain details, however, were not completed until January of the following year. The world premiere was given in March, 1977 by the Gerle-Neeley Duo at the Coolidge auditorium of the Library of Congress.
The composer writes: "Having already composed three works for the violin, I experienced at first a long period of indecision as to the form and character of this particular composition. I reviewed my earlier violin music in an effort to avoid self-repetition as well as to consider various new stylistic possibilities which had been germinating in my mind. Gradually some unusual sound elements and and unconventional textures were developed in the Duetto. The work ultimately took on a character which, owing to the broad range of expressive means and the virtuosic treatment of the medium, might establish it as the culmination of all my chamber music written up to that time.
"Duetto da Camera consists of two movements, each of which is formed of two contrasting parts. A dramatic and impetuous first section is connected by a quiet interlude to solemn slow music in which the violin tunes the G-string down to F. A colorful and intense Scherzo constitutes the initial half of the second movement. Muted piano and the interaction of piano and violin in their highest registers are notable features in this area. A lyrical theme and four variations lend a more quiet, restrained mood to the final section of this composition."
Combinazioni I for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano was composed in 1973 for the Baltimore Chamber Music Society and was premiered on their concert series in November, 1975, by the Aeolian Chamber Players. This first work in Lewis' ongoing series, entitled Combinazioni, is in one movement, divided into six parts. Each section is delineated by musical material of diverse character, with the exception of the final Adagio, which is recapitulative. In this music, as in other recent works of the composer, the music is organized so as to display an intriguing variety of timbre, register and rhythm.
Combinazioni I was recorded on May 11, 1978 at Lang Concert Hall of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Alan Kefauver was the recording engineer and performers included Arne Running, clarinet; Barbara Sonies, violin; Lori Barnet, cello; and Lambert Orkis, piano.
The Eastman Percussion Ensemble, John Beck, conductor, was organized during the academic year 1963-64 and has a repertoire which includes many styles ranging from the avant-garde to jazz. The ensemble maintains an active performance schedule in Rochester and on the East Coast, frequently performing on Educational TV and at professional conventions and symposia. John Beck played with the U.S. Marine Band for four years before joining the Rochester Philharmonic orchestra as principal percussionist in 1959, becoming timpanist in 1962. An Eastman graduate, Beck is head of the percussion department at the institution.
Ellen Mack, a native of Los Angeles, has been active as recitalist and coach on an international scale for nearly three decades. Following study with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and John Crown at the University of Southern California, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Vienna Academy of Music. She has coached at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and was active at the Casals Chamber Music Festival at Zermatt, Switzerland. Besides tours in Europe, Russia and the United States, Ms. Mack was a faculty member and accompanist for the master classes of Heifetz and Piatigorsky at USC. She is a Professor of Piano at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
Recognized as one of the world's outstanding cellists, Stephen Kates studied at Juilliard with Leonard Rose and Claus Adam and with Gregor Piatigorsky at the University of Southern California. Recipient of the Silver Medal of the Third International Tschaikowsky Competition, Kates has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Leningrad symphony orchestras among others. He has given command performances at the White House and has made solo tours of Russia, the Orient and Europe. He is Professor of Cello at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
Jean Kopperud has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia as a concert soloist and as a chamber musician and is presently a member of The New York New Music Ensemble, Omega and The ISCM Ensemble. She is on the faculties of the New York Youth Symphony and the Juilliard School in the Music Advancement Program. As a performance artist she received national acclaim for her presentations of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Harlekin, the demanding performance work for dancing clarinetist, that resulted in her 1987 Avery Fisher Hall debut presented by the New York Philharmonic.
James Winn made his professional debut with the Denver Symphony at the age of fourteen, and his European debut a decade later in a performance of the Busoni piano concerto with the Radio Orchestra of Frankfurt, broadcast live to 22 other countries. Since then he has made numerous solo and chamber music appearances throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan. Mr. Winn is a solo pianist with the New York City Ballet, a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, and a frequent guest with such groups as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He has recorded for Koch International, GM Records, Northeastern Records, and German Radio.
Robert Gerle, internationally acclaimed violinist and conductor, has been called by the London Daily Telegraph "one of the great players of our time." His performances include appearances with major American and European symphony orchestras, solo recitals, and sonata recitals with his wife, the noted concert pianist, Marilyn Neeley. His recordings won him 5 "bests" in a New York Times listing of the best concerto recordings and as a recent guest-conductor with the Orquestra Sinfonica Nacional in Rio de Janeiro he was called "the best conductor to visit here this year" by the Jornal do Brasil. Robert Gerle is Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; he is the author of two books, "The Art of Practising the Violin" (1983) and the "Art of Bowing Practice" (1991), published in London.
Marilyn Neeley is a graduate, magna cum laude, of the University of Southern California. Since her New York debut at the age of 8, Miss Neeley has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and Western Canada. She has appeared as soloist with over 100 symphony orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony and the Boston Pops. She has recorded for the BBC in London, Radio VARA in Holland and Radio Zurich. Miss Neeley has been a prizewinner in the Van Cliburn, Geneva, Michaels and Leventritt International Competitions and was named "Woman of the Year in Music" by the Los Angeles Times. She is Professor of Music at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
The Penn Contemporary Players were founded in 1965 by the University of Pennsylvania Music Department with the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation grant. This resident performing ensemble is composed of professional and gifted graduate student musicians devoted to the performance of a wide range of contemporary music by European and American composers. Under the direction of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Richard Wernick, the Penn Contemporary Players has achieved a reputation
as one of the country's most impressive groups specializing in new music.
All compositions published by Theodore Presser Co. (ASCAP)
Cover design: Barbara B. Lewis
Cover drawing: Bruce H. Bowersock
This recording was made possible by a grant from the McKim Fund of the Library of Congress.
Combinazioni II for 8 percussionists & piano (12:33)
Eastman Percussion Ensemble, John Beck, conductor
Combinazioni IV for cello & piano (17:46)
Tranquillo con delicatezza
Liberamente quasi cadenza
Andante Espressivo - Tema con variazioni
Molto deciso - quasi cadenza
Stephen Kates, cello · Ellen Mack, piano
Fantasiemusik II for clarinet & piano (8:04)
Members of the New York New Music Ensemble
Jeanne Kopperud, clarinet · James Winn, piano
Duetto da Camera for violin & piano (22:32)
Andante drammatico e fantastico (4:52)
Interlude - Adagio solenelle (4:23)
Allegretto scherzando (7:25)
Aria con variazioni (5:43)
Robert Gerle, violin · Marilyn Neeley, piano
Combinazioni I for clarinet, violin, cello & piano (12:52)
The Penn Contemporary Players
Arne Running, clarinet · Barbara Sonies, violin
Lori Barnet, cello · Lambert Orkis, piano
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