Ask even an educated
classical music enthusiast what Richard
Rodney Bennett is best known for and
the answer is likely to be his music
for film. It is certainly true that
film music has made Bennett a virtual
household name - how many millions of
people have seen his name roll past
at the beginning of Four Weddings
and a Funeral? Yet the diversity
of his output over a fifty year period
has encompassed virtually every genre
including jazz, for which he has become
particularly well known years accompanying
such artists as Marion Montgomery at
the piano.
It is a shocking truth
then, that so little of Bennett’s "serious"
music for the concert hall has made
it onto disc. A quick search on Amazon
for instance reveals one disc in the
EMI British Composers series (reviewed
by myself back in 2002) and an import
on Koch featuring amongst four works
in total, Summer Music and Winter
Music, in performances by the New
Zealand Chamber Orchestra. The EMI disc
includes a valuable chance to hear the
Piano Concerto No. 1 of 1968;
valuable in that it is one of only a
small number of recordings that demonstrate
an earlier incarnation of Bennett’s
compositional personality. There is
also the fine Concerto for Stan Getz
although the fillers (somewhat predictably)
are a suite of incidental music from
"Four Weddings" and
the Waltz, fine though it is,
from Murder on the Orient Express.
More recently Chandos have released
an excellent disc in their film music
series that includes Bennett’s music
for Far From the Madding Crowd.
[review]
With so little music
from outside the cinema available, this
particular disc is therefore most welcome
and serves as a fine demonstration of
Bennett’s consummate gifts.
The choral music spans
a good part of Bennett’s career, the
earliest example here being the popular
Five Carols of 1967 with the
most recent, A Farewell to Arms,
dating from 2001. Sea Change,
the work from which the disc takes its
title opens proceedings and serves as
a particularly good introduction to
the music surveyed. Setting Shakespeare
in the outer two movements with Andrew
Marvell and Edmund Spenser in the centre,
Bennett creates an immediately compelling
sense of atmosphere. The tolling of
tubular bell that commences The isle
is full of noises, returns at the
close of the opening song, with the
austere beauty of the writing akin to
Judith Bingham, another British composer
with a gift for choral music. Other
parallels are also evident. Frank Martin’s
settings from The Tempest come
immediately to mind; try the entry of
the choir after the solo introduction
to the second song, The Bermudas,
at 0:43. In Full fathom five,
which Bennett places last, Vaughan Williams’s
Three Shakespeare Songs may be
thought of as the precedent. The exception
here is the setting of Edmund Spenser,
in which Bennett creates an extraordinary
nightmarish vision, employing a kind
of "sprechgesang" technique
completely at odds with its neighbouring
settings yet startlingly effective.
A Farewell to Arms
utilises a clever juxtaposition of two
poems, movingly realised in writing
of telling eloquence. The words of Ralph
Knevet and George Peele tell of the
instruments of war and the reminiscences
of the old retired soldier respectively.
Bennett binds the two with a lyrical
commentary on solo cello, a stroke of
genius and here played beautifully by
Sue Dorey. (Gerald Finzi coupled these
two poems in his own Farewell to
Arms; a setting for tenor and orchestra.
Ed.)
A Good-Night
and Verses are shorter, the former
a gorgeous little part-song setting
Francis Quarles and written as a contribution
to "A Garland for Linda" in
memory of Linda McCartney, a personal
friend of the composer. In comparison
Verses is a relatively early
work, a setting of John Donne, written
in 1964 when the composer was twenty
eight. It is another notable example
of the natural ease with which Bennett
responds to his chosen texts.
Speaking of the Missa
Brevis, John Rutter questions why
Bennett has not been asked for more
liturgical music. It is indeed surprising
that this is his only liturgical work,
for the composer’s natural language
is particularly well suited to the medium.
The gentle strains of the Kyrie
place the music, as Rutter aptly points
out, closer to France and in particular
Poulenc, than anything else although
Britten and even Lennox Berkeley occasionally
come to mind.
The Christmas music
is grouped together at the end of the
disc, commencing with the ever delightful
Five Carols, probably Bennett’s
best known choral work thanks to its
popularity with amateur choirs. The
carols set texts ranging from the fourteenth
to the sixteenth centuries and in the
case of There is no rose, for
instance, will be familiar from settings
by other composers. Out of your sleep
and the joyous Susanni with which
the cycle closes are particular pleasures.
The fifteenth century text of Lullay
mine liking continues the middle
ages theme and like What sweeter
music, was written for former Prime
Minister Edward Heath and his Broadstairs
Choir, Broadstairs just happening to
be the composer’s home town. The brief
but touching Puer Nobis, which
concludes the disc, brings proceedings
to an unashamedly nostalgic close.
There can be few finer
advocates of Bennett’s music than John
Rutter whose own choral credentials
do of course precede him. Without exception
Rutter and his Cambridge Singers respond
to Bennett’s music with sensitivity
and eloquence whilst Rutter also provides
the lucid and informative booklet notes.
Credit also to Collegium Records, firstly
for their enterprise in releasing this
worthy collection of music and secondly
for the quality of the packaging which
is both eye-catching and practical.
Add to this a beautifully balanced,
atmospheric recording and the result
is a fine disc in every way.
Christopher Thomas
The Cambridge Singers/John Rutter 
