Malcolm Binns, Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi pianists
Nicholas Braithwaite, Martin Yates conductors
LYRITA SRCD-2449
William Sterndale Bennett was the most distinguished composer of the early Victorian era in Britain, his only possible rivals being S. S. Wesley (1810 – 1876) and Michael Balfe (1808 – 1870). A friend of both Schumann and Mendelssohn and highly regarded by them, later assessments have tended to regard his idiom as though it were a milk-and-water substitute for their music.
Like most generalisations, this is unfair. It is also unfortunate that he tends to be remembered for two works which, regarded in the light of his entire output are untypical; these are the cantata The May Queen and the oratorio The Woman of Samaria from which ‘God is a spirit’ was extracted and widely sung as an anthem in the protestant denominations.
Much more characteristic is the composer’s substantial output of solo piano music and chamber music, which displays a talent that perhaps only his teacher Cipriani Potter (1792 – 1871) could rival. The first Piano Concerto in D minor is Bennett’s Op. 1 and it is good that all six concerti plus the Concerto for Two Pianos, an almost unique work since it is a collaboration between Sterndale Bennett and his contemporary George Macfarren, are brought together. While this is the first complete recording of Sterndale Bennett’s concertante works for piano and orchestra, they have not been wholly neglected as far as recordings are concerned.
The first four were included by Hyperion in their Romantic Piano Concerto Series, with Howard Shelley both as soloist and conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Four of these works were recorded by Lyrita almost 40 years ago, but the quality of recording is excellent. Concertos Nos. 4 and 6 were recorded this year. The sixth is a completion of the abbreviated score left by the composer, rather than a reconstruction. The task has been carried out most sympathetically by Martin Yates, and aside from Potter’s three concertos for piano, this is the most significant body of English works for piano and orchestra until the later nineteenth century when Stanford and his pupils began writing concertante works.
Disregarding the lazy categorisation of Bennett’s music mentioned above, one is inclined to agree with Nicholas Temperley that often Bennett sounds as though he is taking Mozart as his model rather than his continental contemporaries. The writing for the keyboard is truly virtuosic within the early Romantic limits, and the concertos of Weber also come to mind. In my view these are superior to Chopin’s essays in the form, which are let down by perfunctory writing for the orchestra, no matter how fine the solo writing may be. Considered as concertos, where the soloist and orchestra supposedly meet as equals, they can only be regarded as less than successful.
These recordings are all extremely fine and an essential acquisition for the enthusiast of the concerto genre.
Review by Martyn Strachan