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]

Both these composers were active in musical theatre and so their Violin Concertos have suffered neglect, given the indifference extended to composers who operate simultaneously in different fields. Robert Russell Bennett, in fact, wrote no fewer than seven symphonies so the critical indifference to his concert music is widespread. His reputation lies in his genius for orchestrating some of the great musicals – South Pacific, The Sound of Music and The King and I among them – and for his collaborations with Gershwin and Cole Porter. However, like many another adventurous American he had studied in the 1920s with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, so was well equipped as an all-round artist.

The Concerto was intended for his friend Louis Kaufman but in the event, it was premièred by another performer, Joseph Coleman, in December 1941. Kaufman, though, remains indelibly associated with it and there are (at least) two examples of his way with it, of which more later. It is an immensely attractive and personable work crafted with typically witty touches of orchestration. If its opening puts you in mind of Percy Grainger at trot tempo, I would agree, and succeeding themes are breezy, light-hearted and wittily contrasted, and after the cadenza the music surges splendidly. The slow movement, bar one orchestral eruption, is sweetly lyric, the solo violin adopting an insouciant indifference to any strife. This is followed by a very brief Scherzo – it is not even one minute thirty seconds – a folksy, fast, furious and brilliant dance. The finale opens with portentous thuds but almost immediately modifies to bristly and exciting writing designed to test the mettle of the soloist. When he revised the work in 1944 it was the finale that occupied him the most.

Chloë Hanslip proves a wonderfully committed soloist, both dashing and sensitive, together with the vivid performance of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton. That said, if you want Kaufman’s two performances, both with Bernard Herrmann, one from 1945-46 with the Columbia Symphony (where the finale was marked ‘Allegro marziale’ not the ‘Allegro non troppo vivo’ it became), the other 1956 with the London Symphony, you will have a soloist glistening with romanticist tone and quivering intensity. Even Herrmann, who could be a slowcoach conductor, gets his skates on and they give memorable readings, albeit in sonically limited fashion when set alongside this splendidly recorded Singapore recording. That said, if anything, Hanslip is even more nimble than Kaufman in the finale.

Hexapoda, subtitled ‘Five Studies in Jitteroptera’ is a six-movement jitterbug homage beginning with ‘Gut-Bucket Gus’ and ending with ‘…Till Dawn Sunday’. Kaufman recorded this commercially on a Columbia 78rpm with Bennett – my own favourite version – but I suppose Heifetz’s recording in 1945 with Emanuel Bay is the most famous. Hanslip offers a different timbral slant on these two classics, purer but in no way slower – she is up to tempo throughout and yields nothing to either great predecessor in terms of tempo. Litton proves a stylistically incisive and rhythmically lively partner at the keyboard.

Vernon Duke was born Vladimir Dukelsky and had studied at the Kyiv Conservatory though he’s best remembered for any number of jazz standards such as ‘April in Paris’, ‘Autumn in New York’, ‘I Can’t Get Started’, and ‘Taking a Chance on Love’ among them and hit shows like ‘Cabin in the Sky’. Heifetz encouraged him to write the Concerto though like Bax’s Concerto, he soon went cold on it, and the premiere was given by Ruth Posselt in 1943. It is crafted in three attractively shaped movements – an Allegro Molto, a Waltz and then a Theme and Variations. This Concerto too has a deft, light but never trivial quality, allied to which it possesses a fine sense of structure and attractive, confident dancing themes. In the Waltz, the pizzicati buttress piquant wind sonorities whilst the soloist whistles with insouciance though Duke ensures there’s a correspondingly terse orchestral response, a touch reminiscent of his friend Prokofiev. The Theme in the finale is resolute and strongly declamatory and then Duke gives rein to his romantic side in the variations – the second variation in particular oozes romanticised lyricism, the third is charm itself, the fourth energetic, the fifth dreamy in a way that reminds one of his songs, and the sixth, with coda, rhythmically exciting and very entertaining.

Elmira Darvarova recorded the Duke Concerto with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna under Scott Dunn a decade ago on Urlicht, adding other smaller pieces for violin by him, and though I have not heard it, it must be acknowledged as a pioneering one.

I have heard a number of Hanslip’s recordings and they’re never less than fine but this one is special and I am not sure if I have heard her play better on disc than here. With top class booklet notes from Mervyn Cooke, excellent recorded sound and an orchestra firing on all cylinders marshalled by a conductor who knows where the music should go, this is a quality disc.

Jonathan Woolf

Previous review: Nick Barnard (October 2025)

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