William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875)
Piano Concerto No.4 in F minor, op.19 (1838)
Piano Concerto No.6 in A minor, WoO 48 (1848, completed by Martin Yates)
William Sterndale Bennett / George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887)
Concerto for Two Pianos in C major, WoO 29 (1835)
Simon Callaghan (piano), Hiroaki Takenouchi (piano, WoO 29)
Royal Northen Sinfonia/Martin Yates
rec. 2025, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead, UK
Lyrita SRCD448 [63]
Some readers will doubtless disagree, but since first hearing the opening movement of William Sterndale Bennett’s Piano Concerto No.4, I have regarded it as one of the highlights of the genre written by any Englishman. That was on a recording released in 1990 which featured pianist Malcolm Binns and the Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton (Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD 2032).
Poor Sterndale Bennett has had a chequered career. In his youth, he was lionised by Mendelssohn and Schumann. His early pieces were seen as fine examples of classical craftmanship that nodded towards Mozart – rather than Liszt or Wagner who were soon to dominate the Romantic era. Indeed, there was always a school of thought that suggested he served up reheated Mendelssohn, especially with the cantata The Women of Samaria. His later works were deemed to be stylistically conservative.
By the beginning of the 20th century, as the English Music Renaissance gathered steam, Sterndale Bennett was dismissed as “an uninspired pedant”. There followed decades of neglect. In the 1960s there began a reappraisal of his early works, especially the piano concerti and the chamber music. Some critics regarded them as a bridge between Beethoven and Brahms. There have been several recordings of his work for piano solo, the piano concertos and the symphonic music; Marco Polo, Lyrita and Hyperion led the way.
Sterndale Bennett composed six piano concertos and a single-movement Caprice for piano and orchestra. All have now been recorded. The Piano Concerto No.4 is usually regarded as his masterpiece. He dedicated it to the Bohemian composer, and regular resident in London, Ignaz Moscheles. He premiered it in 1839 with Mendelssohn conducting. The Concerto can be characterised as presenting a “refined virtuosity” and “elegant lyricism”.
Robert Schumann reviewed the score in 1840, and noted: “nothing in the entire concerto is calculated for bravura display and applause, he only cares to display the composition itself”. Nevertheless, as Elizabeth French writes in the liner notes to a Hyperion disc (review), the “first and third movements provide ample opportunity for the composer-pianist to show off his technique, with flowering passagework and some brilliant figuration.” The middle movement, a cool Barcarole: Andante cantabile e con moto, replaced an earlier discarded movement.
I am indebted to Rosemary Firman’s liner notes for details of William Sterndale Bennett’s Piano Concerto No.6 in A minor. It faced delays and revisions, before it was premiered in its present form. Originally titled a Concert-Stück, it was heard at a Philharmonic Concert in London on 5 June 1843. The composer originally planned two movements, but added the central Serenade at the last minute. Unsatisfied with the orchestration, he revised the outer movements, and changed the title to Concerto. The Serenade was replaced with the slow movement from his First Concerto. This version featured substantial changes to the first movement, including extensive rescoring and a thicker orchestral texture. This edition was premiered on 15 June 1848 at the Hanover Square Rooms.
Rosemary Firman, née Williamson, explains in her remarkable William Sterndale Bennett: A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue (Oxford, 1996) that he never felt confident enough to publish the A minor Concerto, and the time lapse caused it to become stylistically dated. Firman rediscovered it in 1992. It is characterized by a broadly classical style, and with its refined, delicate orchestration it stands apart from the prevalent large-scale romantic concertos of the period.
Conductor Martin Yates edited and completed the score. In the liner notes, he tells us that the existing manuscript had “three clearly laid out movements”, though the piano part was often “more of a sketch than a finished article”. He notes that “it was fairly clear where the missing music was” and “reasonably clear as to how these gaps could have potentially been filled in.”. The missing sections varied: “Sometimes the piano part petered out altogether”, or “the right hand was written out whilst the left hand was missing”, or “there was the start of an accompanying figure in the left hand which stopped after just a few notes”.
Yates acknowledges that his edition was “partly guesswork based on my knowledge of Sterndale Bennett’s style, the music of the period and also the music that was already completed on the manuscript”. He concludes: “Unless a more complete score of this concerto materialises, I feel I have done what is possible in helping this concerto come back to life and in doing so hopefully contributing to the remarkable legacy of Sterndale Bennett; a considerable composer of stature and invention.”
The concerto, which is stylistically closest to Mozart and Mendelssohn, has echoes of Hummel and Moscheles. It blends classical clarity with Romantic lyricism, avoiding Lisztian bravura in favour of refined craftsmanship. It is a valuable discovery.
The third and final piece on this disc is the eccentric Concerto for Two Pianos in C major in what I believe is a premiere recording. The oddness has nothing to do with its sound and progress; it is in the history of its composition. According to the liner notes, this single-movement work was completed in 1835 as a joint effort between Sterndale Bennett and fellow student at the Royal Academy of Music, George Alexander Macfarren. Here is how they worked: “The two men began by taking turns: Bennett wrote the first thirty-seven bars, Macfarren the next fifty, and so on, with the last 125 bars or so apparently a collaboration.” There is a suggestion that it may have been the first movement of a full-scale concerto that was never completed.
When one hears this Concerto, with its “youthful exuberance” and “joie de vivre”, it is hard to consider it a purely academic exercise. Clearly the young men devised this for sheer enjoyment. The work is a little unbalanced. It opens with impressive tutti. After the conventional exposition of the first subject, the orchestra soon steps back. From that point to the end, the pianos predominate. The many technical devices include cascading scales and arpeggios. Simon Callagahan is partnered here by Hiroaki Takenouchi.
It may be of particular interest to listeners that Geoffrey Bush, a champion of Sterndale Bennett, arranged the work for two pianos as a Sonata. This version was broadcast on BBC Radio Three in 1969.
Simon Callaghan is a British pianist celebrated for his adventurous repertoire and international performances, who records for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita. He champions neglected composers alongside Romantic classics. A chamber musician and concerto soloist, he collaborates widely and promotes British music with many important premieres and recordings.
The recording is outstanding, as expected from Lyrita. As I said, the liner notes by Rosemary Firman are detailed and informative. They include a Daguerreotype of William Sterndale Bennett. The cover painting is the haunting Yacht Approaching the Coast by W.J. Turner. Web page addresses are given for the performers.
This imaginative Lyrita disc is a crucial continuation of the restoration of Sterndale Bennett’s neglected concertos. It perfectly balances historical curiosity with compelling artistry. Callaghan, Takenouchi, Yates and the Royal Northern Sinfonia illuminate these forgotten treasures. They assert Sterndale Bennett’s stature and offer us a richly rewarding rediscovery of English Romantic piano music.
John France
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