Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
Concerto for Orchestra (1973)
Sonnets to Orpheus (1978–79) *
Diversions (1989)
Jonathan Aasgaard (cello) *
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/John Wilson
rec. 2023, City Halls, Glasgow, Scotland
Chandos CHSA 5266 [72]
John Wilson and the BBC Scottish SO arrive at Volume 5 of their splendid series of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s orchestral works. I am proud to add mine to the catalogue of reviews of all the previous releases available here on this site (review–review–review–review). Wilson worked with Bennett at the end of his career, including on the score for Gormenghast. They were good friends and even made a CD together called Orchestral Jazz in 2000 that is still available from Dutton Vocalion. The BBC transmitted a memorial concert for Bennett in July 2013 and invited Wilson to conduct the BBC Philharmonic. When the legendary Richard Hickox died in 2008 with his Bennett series barely underway, it was decided to restart with Wilson and the BBC Scottish SO. They began with a disc containing one of his best works, the Symphony No 3 in 2017.
Released in May 2020 to a world in lockdown, the last volume in the series was nearly five years ago, so perhaps I might take us back a little. Richard Rodney Bennett (he always used his two first names) was a musician of a sunny disposition who worked in all genres and was without musical prejudice. Contemporary of Englishmen Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle (both born in 1934), Maw (b. 1935), Welsh born Mathias (b. 1935), Americans Reich and Glass (born 1936 and 1937 respectively) and Europeans Pärt and Sallinen (b. 1935) he was immensely talented and forged his own path as jazz pianist, vocal stylist and classical composer.
Turning down a place at Oxford, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Ferguson and Lennox Berkeley before a two-year period with Boulez in Paris. He wrote prolifically from the early 1960s winning big successes in opera (The Mines of Sulphur: 1965) on the silver screen (Far from the Madding Crowd: 1967, Lady Caroline Lamb: 1972, Murder on the Orient Express: 1974), and composing successful scores for ballet and the concert stage.
This new release features three works, beginning with the Concerto for Orchestra from 1973. In the excellent booklet notes written by Richard Bratby we learn that one of the motifs in the first movement derives from a theme by Britten, who celebrated his 60th birthday that year. Incidentally, that summer also saw the premiere of Britten’s Death in Venice in Aldeburgh. Apart from this small thematic link, however, there is little to connect Bennett’s music here to the older composer. Bennett would have heard and appreciated Britten’s achievement in his final opera, but I am also sure he would have been equally impressed and inspired by Sondheim’s success on Broadway that same year with A Little Night Music.
The work is a virtuosic showpiece for orchestra, written in three sections with a total span of about 22 minutes. Beginning chillily with harsh chords and tones, the mood lightens with softer textures on woodwind before a return of the dominant theme. This is repeated before a central scene, which is livelier and more scherzo-like. The alternating pattern of light and shade we heard at the onset then returns. In the second movement, we hear a lovely singing theme on oboe that reminds me of a Malcolm Arnold theme. The development of the theme is expertly written for full orchestra, with lively interjections on the way from brass and varied percussive effects. Bennett brings such variety to this central movement; I would imagine it would be a very satisfying piece for an orchestra to perform in the concert hall. The finale of the Concerto for Orchestra is a theme and variations. It is fast moving and Chandos have helpfully tracked each variation individually. There is a finale after the eighth variation where Bennett offers a little something to everyone involved and caps the whole thing off with aplomb.
Sonnets to Orpheus is a cello concerto finished by Bennett in New York in 1979 and performed first at the Edinburgh Festival by the Hallé under James Loughran with Heinrich Schiff as soloist. The team later did it again in Manchester for the subscribers and toured it to Bradford and Sheffield too. Schiff played with the Hallé a lot and his repertoire was enormous (I saw him conduct them once). Sonnets is a substantial work, lasting 32 minutes here and can stand without fear amongst the peaks of the British Cello Concerto repertory of the 20th Century.
In this record we hear cellist Jonathan Aasgaard who leads the section at the RLPO and for John Wilson when he assembles his Sinfonia of London. The very opening of the work will remind you of Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony – but not for long. Over its five serious sections, the concerto explores deep feelings and emotions and is clearly a heartfelt work into which Bennett poured his all. I had never heard the piece before I started listening to this disc and at first found the work challenging to get a hold on. After three listens over consecutive days, though, I was hooked on it. I particularly like the short central Arioso movement, where Aasgaard shows off some heart-rendingly beautiful playing. The sound Chandos provides (Ralph Couzens is the engineer) is clear and well-balanced. The exposure this disc gives to the Sonnets to Orpheus ought to lead to its take-up by other players. I sincerely hope so; on those lines, isn’t it time we had another recording of the Bliss Cello Concerto from 1970?
I was pleased to get to know this important work and I believe we have in this premiere recording a version that will stand the test of time. I am also happy Wilson chose to work here with Aasgaard whose noble performance is memorable, as I have a soft spot for him, he, having also recorded in the past music of the underrated Carl Davis (born in 1936 like Bennett).
Accessibility is not an issue with the last work on the disc: Diversions from 1989. This is an immediately appealing, cheerful set of variations on the theme of the tune “Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad”. It shows a much lighter, playful side of the composer and there is plenty of colour and liveliness in this exciting performance. At 18 minutes, Bennett was afraid it may be a little long. It isn’t; the variations are very different in mood and never sag. I urge you to try track 26 which is an idyllic interlude for oboe, actually based on another Scottish folksong but composed with such tenderness by the hand of a true craftsman. The Diversions end with a real Highland fling finale.
That summer of 1989 saw the first performance at the Proms of John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, a great piece that became hugely popular receiving several recordings, and performances all over the world. Three years later, a record of Górecki’s Symphony No 3 sold a million copies after lying relatively unknown for fifteen years. Timing is everything with classical music. Bennett’s Diversions didn’t make much of a splash at the time, but as with all the music on these Chandos releases it is ripe for rediscovery today. I am convinced of Bennett’s stature as one of the great British composers of the second half of the 20th Century. When the BBC featured him in a 2016 series at the Barbican, the BBC SO gave a concert under Rumon Gamba. The disc made by the BBC Philharmonic in the year 2000 with Gamba in charge is still available from Chandos (review). It contains his film music. It complements this series by Wilson and the BBC Scottish SO very well and should not be overlooked.
In fact, more people will have heard the concert music of Bennett than you might think. From 2013 until last year, Northern Ballet have had enormous success with their ballet The Great Gatsby. This has toured all over Britain for years and thousands must have seen it in that time. The score is all Bennett, containing music from Partita, Symphony No 3, the percussion concerto and much more. There is also plenty more concert music to come in this current series; concertos, the ballet Isadora and the amazing Spells of 1974 spring to mind immediately. I am sure we will see more volumes.
In my week with Richard Rodney Bennett’s music, I managed to hear a broadcast performance of Victory, the opera he wrote for Covent Garden in 1970. It is a large-scale work with two main protagonists, Heyst (Donald Mcintyre, bass-baritone in the premiere) and Lena (mezzo Anne Howells). It is completely unknown now, but contains some superb music and a gripping narrative. It reminded me a little of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. It is too much to hope that some record company would undertake a recording of Victory in today’s budget-restricted world. I only mention it as an example of the depth of music we have from excellent composers still as yet little-known and unrecorded. When a company like Chandos do invest and commit it to record, let us embrace the joy in discovery that this new music gives us.
Philip Harrison
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