Testimonials
Home » Testimonials"The 'Shipley Idyll' movement....is deeply moving, hope filled, shimmering, descriptive, like the changing seasons, it seems to capture the passage of time and love - the pilgrimage of life in a Sussex landscape." Rupert Toovey writing about Shipley Concerto in the West Sussex County Gazette, June 30th 2021.
"Full of all those things to delight in, real feelings, what makes us human - what music is all about." Veerle Deknopper reviewing Rachel Talitman's 'Paul Lewis Romantic Music for Harp' CD on Culturpakt website, August 2021.
"Yesterday was a unique emotional experience for me, we recorded the worls premiere of 'Concerto Romantico' by the brilliant British composer Paul Lewis, dedicated to me. I feel so honoured. Thank you so so much for enriching the harp repertoire with such inspiring music." Rachel Talitman, Tel Aviv, June 7th 2021.
"Paul Lewis's music was soon realised to be a masterly match to the story." Richard Reynolds on the premiere of 'Le Morte d'Arthur' for speaker and violin, English Music Yorkshire Festival, Bolton Castle, October 2018.
"Your positivity influenced us all every time we saw you and played your beautiful music." Adrian Charlesworth, violinist at the International Composers Festival, Hastings and Bexhill, September 2018.
"What I've always loved about your music is the tunefulness, and sheer joy, of it." Em Marshall-Luck, Founder-Director, English Music Festival and Director, EM Records, August 2018.
"There are wonderful tunes a plenty which alongside lush orchestration and stunning orchestral playing make for a winning disc." Paul R.W. Jackson on 'Heritage and Landscape' CD, British Music Society, February 2018
"British light music at its best." MDT website on 'Heritage and Landscape' CD, September 2017.
"A wonderful selection by a very fine composer of TV themes, superbly played in excellent sound........a superb collection of pieces by a composer who really knows how to paint pictures in sound. I look forward to further releases with keen anticipation." David R. Dunsmore on 'Heritage and Landscape' CD, Music Web International, September 2017.
"...a smile always ready and a laugh only an upbeat away.... Modest, mischievous and loyal.... His name is Paul Lewis and thank heavens for internationally successful film and TV composers like him who make you smile instead of frown, laugh instead of cry. 'Seaside Concerto' did that... Lewis is in his 74th year, an accomplished veteran of the music-in-film-and-TV business.... Naturally, his years qualify him for these witty, funny, strawberry-iced reminiscences, and likewise his orchestral mastery for the piece's colourful and accurate nostalgia..... Tremendous fun it all was..." Richard Amey on the premiere of 'Seaside Concerto' for Mighty Wurlitzer and orchestra, Worthing Herald, April 2017.
"Paul's compositions for harp are well written, full of charm and they are never obvious. It is a new way of playing and listening to the harp!" Alessandra Ziveri, harpist, 2017.
"The pupils (and I) are still on a huge high this morning. We have all thoroughly enjoyed the process of learning the Overture and you did a masterful job in writing something that was both fun and in places really hard! So the sense of achievement from getting as close as we did to doing it justice is huge and seeing that in the kids' faces this morning is why I love my job. Thank you!" Sandy Chenery, Director of Music, Brighton College, (Lewis's old school,) the morning after conducting the College Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of 'Brighton Beach Overture', written to celebrate the opening of the college's new state-of-the-art Music School. May 2016.
"Beautifully lyrical and sometimes nostalgic pieces, stepping back in time to showcase the harp at its stylish best.....Fun, enjoyable and entertaining: the perfect music to brighten your mood, and the mood of your audience!" Gabriella Dall'Olio, international harp soloist and Head of Harp Studies, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, on 'Postcards from Paris' and 'Saturday Night Jazz Suite', November 2013.
"What a joy it was to perform your new work, every time we played it I found something new and inspiring in it, it is such a clever piece. I know the entire orchestra loved it and want to do it again." Mark Andrew James, conductor, Sussex Symphony Orchestra after the premiere of 'The Sunken Ballroom', November 2013.
"The music that Lewis produced for this series is some of the best I have heard from this period of television." 'Jonman' reviewing the Silva Screen Records CD release of the original 1972 soundtrack recording of 'Arthur of the Britons', Movie Music International website, June 2013.
"Your excellent music, and your brilliant, hugely receptive and sensitive approach to working with a director enhanced the pieces we did together immeasurably." Patrick Dromgoole, retired TV director and former Programme Controller, HTV West, Sep 2012.
"It was a pleasure to do the concerto. I really enjoyed it." American conductor Dorian Williams on 'Concerto Burlesco' with bassoon soloist Tolga Alpay and the Bursa State Symphony Orchestra, Turkey, Feb 2012.
"You have captured the spirit of Turkey in your music better than any Turkish classcal composer." Izmir State Symphony Orchestra member on the premiere of 'Pamir Kirghiz Suite', April 2011.
"WONDERFUL rehearsal, WONDERFUL music - we want you back!" Numan Pekdemir, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra member and Director: Bodrun Chamber Orchestra, Turkey, in the interval of the first rehearsal for the all Paul Lewis concert in Izmir, April 2011.
"Peter Hammond...." (director of 300 TV dramas) "had a very macabre sense of humour. You and him working together were mischievously creative, both of you geniuses at playing tricks on your audience! You and him approached the inane and turned it into a waltz!" July 2021, Simon Fox, BBC TV cameraman, former juvenile lead in the BBC film "The Children of Dynmouth", 1986, directed by Peter Hammond.
"His (Peter Hammond's) directorial work is breathtaking and your scores for him are your very finest - you and Peter were two towering creative giants working brilliantly together." Elizabeth Jane Baldry, harpist, composer and film-maker, writing to Paul Lewis. In memoriam Peter Hammond, 15th Nov 1923 - 12th Oct 2011.
"A formidable achievement." TV drama director Peter Hammond on Lewis's orchestral score for Pabst's 1928 silent movie masterpiece 'Pandora's Box' 2007.
"This is an extraordinary score, by far the best I know written for Pabst's beautiful film! That you have a real feeling for light music of the 1920/30s is evident, and your light music has 'le charme' of French film composers such as Milhaud, Poulenc, Auric." Prof. Juerg Stenzl, former Professor of Musicology, University of Salzburg, on hearing Lewis's score to 'Pandora's Box', April 2013.
"I'm afraid we really were a bit gushing with Paul Lewis about his stunning score but we really were knocked out by the sheer brilliance of it......The whole event was wonderful and memorable." Chris Serle, broadcaster and silent movie authority, on the premiere of Lewis's orchestral score to Pabst's 1928 silent movie masterpiece 'Pandora's Box' at the Colston Hall, Bristol, 2007.
"Paul Lewis's score was tremendous - subtle, complex, responsive but never obvious, with a really outstanding performance by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia players. A really memorable event." John Adams, University of Bristol, on the premiere of Lewis's orchestral score to Pabst's 1928 silent movie masterpiece 'Pandora's Box' at the Colston Hall, Bristol, 2007.
"They don't write film music like that anymore!" Ben Hopkins, film director, on tracklaying battle music in '37 Uses for a Dead Sheep', 2006.
"Working with you has been inspiring.....and sheer fun."
Cairo Cannon, film producer, 'The Madness of the Dance', 2006.
"British light music at its very best.....music that we seem to remember from a simpler and more innocent age." John France, 'Music Web', reviewing 'Serenade and Dance, The Romantic Harmonica Music of Paul Lewis' CD, 2003.
"Your music is wonderful!" Wendy Froud, creator of puppets for 'Star Wars', 'Dark Crystal' and 'Labyrinth', 2002.
"Paul Lewis has been producing wonderful music for British television for more than thirty years with some staggeringly beautiful results.....(He) attacks his projects with a full cinematic mentality that would match Hollywood's best.......This collection of Paul Lewis's music is a glorious celebration of 30 years of thoroughly enjoyable music." Andrew Keech, 'Music from the Movies', reviewing 'Three Decades of Television Themes' CD, 2002.
"At once music of its time, music in response to popular need, and music that is rewarding to listen to - all attributes of the best light music."
Andrew Lamb, music journalist, writing privately of 'Three Decades of Television Themes' CD, 2002.
"This isn't television, this is Hollywood!" Mike Ross-Trevor, recording engineer, Whitfield Street Studios, London, on recording 'Three Decades of Television Themes' CD, 2000.
"Far too good for television." Paul Tonks, author of 'Pocket Essentials: Film Music' on hearing 'Three Decades of Television Themes' CD, 2000.
"It was cheering to have your good-natured and utterly professional backup." Joe Waters, BBC TV drama producer, 'The Dark Angel', 1989.
"The real hit was 'Dances for Guitar and String Quartet' by Paul Lewis.....a stylish and accessible work you could present to any audience at any venue." 'Classical Guitar' magazine reviewing the premiere at guitarist John Mills' 50th birthday concert, Wigmore Hall, London, 1997.
"Your work on 'Supernatural' was magnificent and I've never enjoyed working with a composer more." Pieter Rogers, TV Drama producer, 1977.
"Well done young Paul, I watched last night." Peter Hammond, TV drama director, the day after transmission of the twenty-year-old Paul Lewis's first television score, 'Armchair Theatre: A Way of Living', December 1963.
