Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981)
Concerto in A major (‘In the Popular Style’) for Violin and Orchestra (1941)
Hexapoda – Five Studies in Jitteroptera for Violin and Piano (1940)
Vernon Duke [Vladimir Alexandrovich Dukelsky] (1903-1969)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (c. 1941-43, violin part edited by Ruth Posselt)
Chloë Hanslip (violin), Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Litton
rec. 2023, Esplanade Concert Hall & Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore
Chandos CHSA5371 SACD[61]

In terms of repertoire, this was something of an unexpected release from Chandos but what was not unexpected is that in the hands of conductor Andrew Litton and violinist Chloë Hanslip it has turned out to be a complete success. Litton and Hanslip strike me as an ideal partnership, the former one of the very best at this kind of jazz-inflected repertoire while Hanslip remains one of my favourite violinists with technique and stylish, characterful playing again ideally suited to this unfamiliar repertoire. They are backed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in sparkling form with the Chandos SA-CD recording again ideal – natural sounding but rich weighty and detailed.

All the music on this disc was unfamiliar to me – the Duke Concerto appeared on a modern recording back in 2015, while the Bennett survives in a murky mono recording notable for featuring violinist Louis Kaufman who inspired the work. Robert Russell Bennett is best known for his work orchestrating Broadway shows by the likes of Gershwin, Kern, Porter and Rodgers and Hammerstein. His Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture remains in the active concert repertoire of most orchestras as do the numerous medleys and other ‘symphonic pictures’ of classic Broadway Shows. Away from Showbusiness, Bennett was an active ‘straight’ composer – the Wikipedia page lists some 32 orchestral works, 12 stage and incidental music scores, 21 Wind Band scores and 22 chamber music pieces for starters. Not much of this extended legacy has transferred to disc – although I would warmly recommend the excellent collection again on Chandos of the Wind Band music from the RNCM Wind Orchestra under Clark Rundell and Mark Heron.

The concerto offered here dates from 1941 and has the sub-title “In the Popular Style”. It is an attractive easy-going work as the title might suggest. Mervyn Cooke’s excellent liner note quotes Bennett as saying; “for many a good year it seemed impossible to see a love scene in a movie without hearing the tender tones of Louis Kaufman’s violin behind it”. Kaufman was one of many brilliant and gifted musicians drawn to Hollywood by the promise of a secure income working in movies. The work is in four movements totalling a compact 23:52 with the opening movement taking up nearly half the total playing time. Although nominally “popular”, this is virtuosic stuff making significant demands of both soloist and orchestra. Hanslip’s light and unforced almost nonchalant tone is just perfection here and she is brilliantly supported by the Singapore SO who likewise make light of Bennett’s far-from-straightforward writing – but over the years this ensemble has shown itself to be of the highest quality in the many discs it has recorded for BIS in particular, so the excellence of their contribution comes as no surprise.  

The four movements have distinct characters, the opening playful and light with an initial theme that has odd echoes of a swinging version of the Järnefelt Praeludium. The following Andante moderato is pensively lyrical in a Barber-esque, unmistakeably Americana kind of way. This is played with ideal fluidity and expressiveness by Hanslip – she makes little portamenti that are so stylish and apt for this music. They might be indicated in the score but they still need to be executed sensitively as here. The third movement – a 1:27 tour de force perpetual mobile seems to act as an introduction or bridge to the finale proper marked Allegro non troppo vivo. This is still hugely demanding music again despatched with authority and panache by all concerned.  Perhaps this closing finale is a little disappointing musically compared to the other three movements but at just 4:29 it hardly outstays its welcome. The impression of the work as a whole is of a well-crafted, good-natured showpiece that certainly deserves to be heard. This is just the second recording of this work in nearly seventy years – with the other being, as mentioned, a mono off-air one.  Bennett’s orchestrations are detailed and very colourful which one must imagine is better represented on this 2025 state-of-the-art recording.

A year before the concerto Bennett wrote another work for Kaufmann – the quirkily titled Hexapoda – Five Studies in Jitteroptera for violin and piano. At a Friday-night dinner party, Kaufman asked Bennett to write him a work which would “clothe American dance-hall material in the respectable garments of educated music.” By the following Sunday morning, the work was complete.  It was premiered at the Carnegie Hall in March 1940, recorded by Kaufman for Columbia and was adopted by Heifetz into his recital repertoire soon after and he too recorded it in November 1945 – but you will look long and hard for more recent studio recordings. YouTube reveals a few concert performances but quite why such an entertaining yet thrillingly virtuosic work is not in the repertoire of more violinists is simply inexplicable. Again, Litton and Hanslip are the ideal partnership. I really like the rather febrile vibrato Hanslip deploys in the one slower movement – Jane shakes her hair. These are five miniatures – the longest is the closing ….’till dawn Sunday where the manic dancing through Saturday night dissolves into a distant dissonantly harmonised keyboard echo of Ein’ feste Burg.

If, despite his formal training in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, Bennett seemed essentially at peace with his populist career, perhaps Vernon Duke was less so. Born Vladimir Alexandrovich Dukelsky he trained alongside Prokofiev at the Kyiv Conservatory.  His family escaped the turmoil of the Russian Civil War eventually reaching America in 1921. By 1922 he had been befriended by George Gershwin and was using “Vernon Duke” as a pen name for writing popular/show songs. Songs such as April in Paris, Autumn in New York, I Like the Likes of You, Water Under the Bridge and I Can’t Get Started have remained standards. Back in the 20s retaining his birth name, he composed Zephyr and Flora for the Ballets russes which has been recorded on Chandos. The Violin Concerto recorded here was written the year after his biggest hit – the Broadway Show Cabin in the Sky. The concerto was written at Heifetz’s prompting but he seems to have lost interest in promoting the work with the 1943 premiere being given by Ruth Posselt which the liner credits as having also edited the violin part. After that, the work fell into almost immediate obscurity before being revived for the 2014 recording mentioned above. I have only dipped into that version via a lo-res streaming service. Violinist Elmira Darvarova has the technical capacity for the work but is rather closely and slightly unforgivingly recorded.

Whereas the Bennett concerto wears its ‘lightness’ easily, the Duke work clearly wants to be taken seriously. Perhaps on the back of his Broadway success, Duke wanted to prove – as much to himself as anyone else – that he could write absolute music with the best. Again, Litton and Hanslip prove to be superb interpreters. The violin writing is angular and demanding (you wonder how much tweaking Ruth Posselt had to do to knock it into this final impressive shape). The work is in the traditional three movements running for a total of 28:55 with the first two movements; Allegro molto (with an extended cadenza) and a Tempo di valse taking almost exactly half the duration with the closing Tema con Variazione (six in total) the other half. The music is resolutely tonal with definite nods towards Prokofiev or Hindemith. Hanslip’s great skill is to ensure a sense of long-lined, lyrical sweep giving the music an attractive, acerbic Romanticism. As such, it is a surprise that it was ignored both by Heifetz and all the generations of players who came after him. The central Tempo di Valse starts with the soloist playing a pizzicato accompaniment to a widely spaced duet between bassoon and flute which has a kind of Shostakovichian quirky humour – perhaps the lush harmonies and easy lilt point towards Duke’s populist successes although this is quickly replaced by a scampering passage where the orchestra chases the solo part across the entire playing range before the woozy waltz resumes. I rather like this movement.

The closing ‘Theme’ is bold and assertive and after a brief pause the soloist dominates the first variation (all separately tracked on this Chandos disc) with widely ranging arpeggiated figurations. Variation 2 Lamentoso strongly contrasts this with a languorous solo line richly supported.  Variation 3 is marked Giocoso which it is in a rather winsome playful way. Duke’s orchestration is always effective if hardly mould-breaking.  Each of these variations make varying but considerable demands of the soloist with a considerable number of passages requiring tricky multiple stopping or playing at the very highest extremes of the violin. In either instance it is notable how Hanslip plays without any sense of strain or forced tone. Variation 5 Andantino allows a brief passage of reflection before the closing Variation 6 and Coda Ben ritmato. Actually, this has some of the lightest elements in the work with syncopations and even a briefly walking bass line before a final virtuosic flourish and a slightly “that’s all folks” ending. The possible issue that faces both concerti is that for all the polish and craft in the writing and the attractive orchestration, there is a degree of thematic anonymity that means even after a few listens I cannot easily recall any of the ‘tunes’ from either work – but this would be an observation made of many similar works written during this same period.  What does stay crystal clear in the memory is the excellence of the performances and recordings here.

This is a fine release of music that deserves to be heard especially in performances as persuasive as these.

Nick Barnard

Other review: Jonathan Woolf (November 2025)

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