This was premiered on my Feb. 22, 2011 concert at Duke.
On
March 31, 2006, there was a concert of five of my eleven sonatas for solo
violin at Duke University. Joseph and Mary Kay Robinson were in attendance, and
asked me to write something they could play together. After finishing the Govinda
Sonata for flute and piano, I was delighted to comply with the request, and
this trio is the result. The Robinsons, along with Thomas Warburton, premiered
the trio on February 22, 2011 at Duke.
The Aditya Hridayam is a hymn in Valmiki’s Ramayana associated
with the Sun or Surya
and was recited by the great sage Agastya to Rama on the battlefield before fighting with Ravana. This
historic hymn starts at the beginning of the Battle with Ravana, when Lord Rama is fatigued and
getting ready to fight.
I find the
first line of the Aditya Hridayam very useful as a forgiveness mantra. The main
theme of the second movement corresponds to this first line.
The tempo
marking for the last movement, “Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz”, is German for
“Animal Carcass Removal Law”. Such a lovely language.
Joseph
Robinson is one of the last oboists in
America to study
with the legendary Marcel Tabuteau, Joseph Robinson has been
one of the
outstanding orchestral musicians of his generation,
serving as Principal
Oboe of the New York Philharmonic for 27 years from June
1978 until September
2005. Known especially for his lyricism and phrasing, he
has performed
concerti, orchestral, and chamber works in concert
halls around the world
to international critical acclaim.
Mr. Robinson
has had
a distinguished teaching career,
serving for more than 20 years
as head of Oboe Studies at the Manhattan School of Music,
where he helped
establish the first Master of Orchestral Studies degree in
America and from
which he received the Presidential Medal for Meritorious
Faculty Service in
2005. He has taught at the University of North
Carolina School of
the Arts, the University of Maryland, Duke University
and at Lynn
University's Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton,
Florida. His many
students occupy important positions all over the world.
Today, Mr. Robinson
resides in Blaine,
Washington with his wife, violinist Mary Kay Robinson. They
are parents of
three remarkable daughters — executive Katie, doctor Jody and
diva Becky.
Mary
Kay Robinson, violinist, is a 1968 graduate of the Juilliard School,
where she studied
with Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamian. She studied chamber
music with Felix
Galimir, Donald Weilerstein, Josef Gingold and members of the
Guarneri String
Quartet. She furthered her education with studies with Glenn Dicterow,
Gregory Fulkerson and Gerald
Beal. Her
first job after graduation
was as violin instructor at the University of Tennessee, in
her hometown of
Knoxville, where she filled in for her former teacher, William
Starr, who was
on sabbatical in Japan. She was a member of the University of
Tennessee String
Quartet and later held a similar position in the University of
Maryland String
Quartet.