Well it seems at last that composer Benjamin Lees has finally come into his own, and none too soon as the year 2009 witnessed his 85th birthday. For the longest time -- decades even -- all one could hear on recordings of Lees after the most diligent searching were two concertos, a couple of piano pieces, his first string quartet, second symphony, second violin sonata, and another, short orchestral work. This was during a time when a lot of contemporary American music was being recorded, and when the veil came down over this ...
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Well it seems at last that composer Benjamin Lees has finally come into his own, and none too soon as the year 2009 witnessed his 85th birthday. For the longest time -- decades even -- all one could hear on recordings of Lees after the most diligent searching were two concertos, a couple of piano pieces, his first string quartet, second symphony, second violin sonata, and another, short orchestral work. This was during a time when a lot of contemporary American music was being recorded, and when the veil came down over this tiny, highly specialized area of the record industry circa 1980, Lees more or less totally disappeared from view. This was a pity, as Lees has always gone his own way as a musician, never followed trends, and his music is solid, unsentimental, and clearly contemporary without resorting to systems or bypassing his own aesthetic choices for any reason. With the new century, a flurry of new Lees recordings has followed, and now Naxos -- which last dropped in on Lees in 1998 through a...
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