Berenice Robinson Overture in D
Berenice Robinson (1909–1990)
Berenice Robinson Overture in D, Op. 13 (1940) Eagle-eared listeners may remember this piece from last season, which we plan to add to our next CD release as part of the American Romantics project, as a perfect example of the interwar Neo-Classical style in music, heard in music by composers as varied as de Falla, Hindemith, Prokofiev, Respighi, Stravinsky and Villa-Lobos. Berenice Robinson attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music (alongside Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti and Nino Rota), then Juilliard. She was awarded a coveted residency at the Yaddo artist colony in Saratoga Springs in 1934. By the time she composed this work for a 1941 performance by New York’s High School of Music and Art (now called La Guardia HS), Robinson was a Long Island University faculty member. Her Psalm 113 arrangement was performed by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in 1949, and in 1969 she was a Fulbright Lecturer in Berlin. Her scholarship of Jewish music and American musical history included work for Harper’s and the Encyclopedia of American History. She wrote a three-volume history of pop music for children in the 1970s. The overture is in a neoclassical style, a significant musical current in the early 20th century. Its main D major theme in stepwise motion and its gentler secondary theme feature beautiful solo writing for oboe, horn and cello section, among others. This work is part of the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia and is part of the LSO’s “American Discoveries” project. Berenice Robinson Morris Born: March 27, 1909, New York, NY Died: July 13 1990The Overture in D is an orchestral work by American composer Berenice Robinson, written in a classical style that demonstrates strong formal craftsmanship. It is a lively and accessible single-movement work for full orchestra.
The Overture in D was composed in the mid-twentieth century as part of Robinson's broader output of orchestral and chamber music.
A typical performance lasts approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
Listen for the energetic opening theme and the contrast between vigorous tutti passages and more lyrical, quieter sections. The work showcases the full orchestral palette with confident orchestration.
Robinson is among a generation of American women composers whose work was often overlooked during their lifetimes. Performances of her music today contribute to the important effort of recovering and celebrating underrepresented voices in the orchestral canon.
