Lewis sang in his long career with nearly every great conductor of his time. In this country there was Sir Malcom Sargent, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Charles McKerras, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Alexander Gibson, Sir John Pritchard, Sir Colin Davies, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Andrew Davis .......

Others include -

Leonard Bernstein, Georg Szell, Georg Solti, Lorin Maazel, Erich Leinsdorf, Vittorio Gui, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Antol Dorati, Carlo Maria Guilini, Pablo Casals, Daniel Barenboim, Eugene Ormandy, Fritz Reiner, Antal Dorati .....

Lewis auditioned to Malcolm Sargent after his demob, showing the musicianship that would be become legendary. Sargent, firing a tenor who had been engaged to sing Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis", asked a London agent if there was a tenor who could sing it. Yes, he had.  Lewis, never having seen the score, far less sung it, looked at it in the train to Liverpool, sang it to Sargent, and was engaged. So began an artistic association that would last for his whole career.

It would be Sargent who realised that this young tenor could be a fine Gerontius (Elgar). With his encouragement, Lewis went on to become the finest of his generation. Recording Gerontius with the conductor in 1955 with Marjorie Thomas.

Sargent recorded all the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in 1956. These recordings are still available.

Sir John Barbirolli also saw Lewis as the finest Gerontius of his time, recording it with him in 1964 with Janet aker. Which recording is the finer is debatable... he was 41 in the Sargent recording, 50 in the Barbarolli. Each has different virtues.

Solti was another favourite conductor for Lewis. His fire, enthusiasm, his loyalty to British singers, all an inspiration. Lewis performed with Solti in USA and Europe extensively.

Guilini was perhaps the most admired. Lewis particularly liking the Italian's dedicated sincere approach to music.

Bruno Walter was an early influence. There is a story behind the recording of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde".  Richard was engaged , together with Kathleen Ferrier, to perform this work live in the Edinburgh Festival in the early fifties, and to make a recording of it after. Lewis was relatively unknown at this time, so the recording company wanted a better known tenor, also changing the recording venue to Vienna, Lewis was dropped. He was to say "when we were rehearsing, Julias Patzac (the Viennese tenor) arrived to talk about the recording as I rehearsed it for the concert". He looked upon this as one of his great disappointments.

A recording was recently released, recorded during the performance with Kathleen Ferrier and Barbarolli.

 

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