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William
STERNDALE BENNETT (1816-1875)
Overture, The May Queen (1842)
[6:27]
Overture, The Wood Nymphs (1839)
[13:42]
Symphony in G minor Op. 43 (1863) [23:41]
Overture, The Naiades (1836) [12:32]
*
Overture, Parisina (1835) [8:05]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Nicholas
Braithwaite
Philharmonia Orchestra/Nicholas Braithwaite
*
rec. early 1990s? London. ADD
LYRITA SRCD.206 [64.35]
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Hearing Sheffield-born
and Royal Academy trained Sterndale
Bennett playing his own First Piano
Concerto Mendelssohn invited the young
Briton to Leipzig not so much as a pupil
but as a friend. From then onwards until
Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 Sterndale
Bennett was often in that city breathing
in the atmosphere of the Schumann-Mendelssohn
milieu. It shows in his music although
it lacks nothing in freshness and does
on occasion push the envelope. For example
amid the bright, sparkling and pointillist
ebullience of The May Queen overture
there are some remarkably predictive
touches anticipating Dvořák.
The Wood Nymphs with its
cooling woodwind zephyrs also has its
own, at first slow-pulsed, magic then
gradually gains velocity and a devil-may-care
zest that parallels the work of Weber
in the overtures to Oberon and
Euryanthe. The auburn autumnal
tones of
Dvořák 7 and Brahms 2 are there
again in the much later Rhine-inspired
Symphony in G minor from 1863. It’s
a work of considerable and enchanting
delicacy with a sturdier tone asserted
in the finale. It would make a pleasing
counterpoise to Schumann’s Rhenish
symphony without quite that work’s
picturesque grandeur but with a more
Weber-like chuckle. Another Rhenish
work is The Naiades overture
– an artefact of Sterndale Bennett’s
journey up the Rhine from Düsseldorf
to Mainz in 1836. His downy-light Mendelssohnian
hand is in evidence again but so also
are those dramatic Weberian flourishes.
Parisina is an earlyish work
inspired by Byron’s poem of the same
name. Here a darkly Beethovenian hand
can be discerned along with the usual
pleasing Weber and Schumann stigmata.
It is however more laboured than the
other three overtures.
Lyrita have packed
this enterprising disc with customary
care and these otherwise unissued recordings
are from late sessions in the early
1990s and are fully digital. Braithwaite
draws smooth playing from his two orchestras.
The notes are by David Byers. They are
in English only and are a supportive
complement to this German early romantic-influenced
music from a desperately neglected era
in England’s musical history. Lyrita
have already provided us with the piano
concertos and those two discs should
not be forgotten: SRCD.204
Piano Concertos Nos 1, 3; SRCD.205
Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 5. The Symphony
has some competition; this time from
Douglas Bostock on ClassicO
where the coupling is one of Cipriani
Potter’s Beethovenian symphonies. The
coupling dictates your choice and priorities.
Fine un-clichéed music-making
either way.
Rob Barnett
Rob Barnett
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