Richard Rodney Bennett, although now resident in New
York, is unquestionably one of the most naturally versatile British
compositional talents of the last forty years or so. I place equal emphasis
on the words natural and versatile, for it is the sheer ease with which
he has been able to flit between the genres of mainstream classical,
film music and jazz that marks him out as a truly diverse talent, a
diversity that is demonstrated particularly well by this disc. In point
of fact jazz has been an increasingly important influence both compositionally
and in performance, partnering singers such as Marion Montgomery on
the piano and also building something of a reputation as a singer-songwriter
himself with a fine voice.
The jazz influence and lighter side of his musical
nature is well demonstrated in the Concerto for Stan Getz
and the unashamedly sentimental Dream Sequence, for cello and
piano, recorded upon the birth of Julian Lloyd Webber’s son, David,
and played here by Lloyd Webber with the composer at the piano. Dream
Sequence is in fact an arrangement of three popular songs inspired
by childhood and reminiscences thereof, Baby let me take you dreaming,
Sleepyhead and Welcome to my dream. I’m afraid
the slush is all too much for me here but there you go. It’s one of
those pieces you will either love or hate. The Stan Getz Concerto
is altogether more interesting, a stimulating combination of energy
with a little grit thrown into the first movement for good measure,
coupled with smoke filled blues bars late at night in the central movement
and a fiercely demanding saxophone part despatched with aplomb and stylistic
perfection by the ever magnificent John Harle.
The film music is represented by the Waltz from
Murder on the Orient Express and the "love theme" from
the huge box office smash Four Weddings and a Funeral. Part of
Richard Rodney Bennett’s success with film scores could be attributed
to his reputation for writing with phenomenal speed, a great asset in
hitting tight deadlines, although there is nothing about this music
that indicates any corners being cut. Far from it, in the case of Murder
on the Orient Express he manages to get marvellously inside both
the period and the atmosphere of Agatha Christie’s classic novel in
music of effervescent appeal. By its side, the dreamy excerpt from Four
Weddings and a Funeral, whilst perfectly attractive, is far less
memorable although I certainly well remember the effectiveness of the
incidental music in the context of the film itself.
The Piano Concerto No.1 pre-dates all of these
works by some margin although only six years separate it from Murder
on the Orient Express. It is hard to believe that this music came
from the pen of the same composer, the Piano Concerto representing
Bennett’s earlier, strongly serial based style, a legacy of his studies
with Boulez and time spent at Darmstadt in the late 1950s. By the 1980s
the serial element of his language had largely worked itself out although
there are still traces of it audible in the opening movement of the
Getz concerto. Written for Stephen Kovacevich (then Bishop) and the
CBSO to a Feeney Trust commission, the Piano Concerto is very
much a tour de force, skilfully exploring differing elements of the
instrument’s character in each movement. The opening Moderato
is marked by elaborate, crystalline figuration, the piano exploring
the melody in wonderfully haunting, dream-like animation. The ensuing
Presto is Bartókian in the percussiveness of its solo
part, whilst the Lento explores a bluesy melody stated at the
outset in writing of greater soloistic density than the Moderato.
The final Vivo is a breathless and ultimately emphatic headlong
dash of constantly shifting time signatures with a more restrained,
albeit short lived, lyricism reminiscent of the opening movement, at
its heart.
In many ways it is the Piano Concerto that has
"dated" here, a statement very much of its time. Yet it’s
a fine work with much to admire and, in this case, a highly committed
performance by Kovacevich. Having listened to the disc, which I have
to say does serve as a very useful overview of Richard Rodney Bennett’s
prolific output, I found myself lamenting the fact that so little of
his "serious" music is currently available. One of those occasional
reminders that although we should consider ourselves lucky that so much
rarely heard British music is now coming to disc, there are so many
more deserving cases to consider.
Christopher Thomas
See also review
by Hubert Culot
Stephen Kovacevich (piano)a;
John Harle (saxophone)b; BBC Symphony Orchestraab;
Alexander Gibsona; Barry Wordsworthb; Hollywood
Bowl Orchestracd; John Maucericd; Julian Lloyd Webber
(cello)e; Richard Rodney Bennett (piano)e