Photo by Alana Melvin.
Junior Alex Lewis’s cello recital was on Saturday, April 24. Hosted both in person in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel and streamed online, Lewis says the recital was the most important part of his school year and one of the most important parts of his undergraduate career.
Lewis played two pieces: Robert Schumann’s “Adagio and Allegro,” accompanied by senior Hung Nguyen on the piano, and Benjamin Britten’s “First Suite for Solo Cello.” The Schumann piece started the recital with a bang, bouncing between higher and lower pitches and creating some beautiful melodies with Nguyen’s piano. This first piece, however, was reserved compared to what followed. Britten’s cello suite is an epic adventure, marked by distinct, unique sections of heavy chords, erratic plucked sections and dissonant harmonics. These two pieces, along with Lewis’s commanding presence on stage, made for an impressive and impactful outing.