Richard Rodney Bennett 1936-2012

[ardcarp]

Has a more versatile example of combined talants (composer/arranger/performer in many genres) ever existed? Just possibly, but not with the added dash of genius RRB had. Personal favourites are his TV score to Gormenghast, and his beautifully crafted Christmas Carols. I am pleased he found contentment in the relaxed performing environments of his later life. A few years ago he (as President of our local Music Society) turned up and gave an evening's entertainment with John Harle the saxophonist. RRB was just loving being there and doing his stuff. You don't see relaxed and un-stressed performers that often!

[MrGongGong]

I worked with RRB on editing a film soundtrack when I was a student, a long night with several Revoxes and razor blades to make a final version that we played the next day. He was brilliant to meet and a wonderful inspiration.

[Richard Tarleton]

I was page turning for JB at that concert, though to my best recollection it was in the RFH with the LSO conducted by Previn (I could be wrong!).

Wow! I'd forgotten the page turner!

Correction - I'm being stupid, it was the Melos ensemble! The one thing I can't remember is who was conducting.

It was definitely QEH, I no longer have the programme but can remember most of it, a mixed bag of chamber works inc Schumann piano quintet. One of the violins broke a string just after they'd started the Schumann. Bream also played the Dowland Fantasia P1 on the lute, for some reason!

The only LSO/Previn guitar premiere I can remember from that time was that of the Previn concerto with Williams, a work I, er, don't think I've heard since.

[makropulos]

This is tremendously sad news. My first memory of playing any piece by a living composer was when I was 12 and learned "The Child That is Born on the Sabbath Day" from "A Week of Birthdays", and I loved it. The next year I went to Leighton Park School (in Reading, run by the Quakers) and discovered that RRB had been a former pupil. When the school opened its new hall in May 1972, Richard Rodney Bennett and John Constable (another former pupil) came and performed in a special concert, including several pieces for two pianos, and the big moment was a new piece: RRB's "The Bermudas" (setting Marvell's poem) for chorus, piano 4 hands, percussion, strings and (ad lib.) wind and brass. It was published by Universal Edition for "choir and school orchestra" - a wonderfully practical piece of writing, with a typically gorgeous and individual main theme. We loved playing and singing it.

After the experience of playing these pieces, I was hooked on RRB's music for life. What a marvellously gifted and versatile composer he was. RIP, Sir Richard.

[cloughie]

Sad to hear the passing of a very talented musician - probably my No3 in the crossover stakes behind Bernstein and Previn - he firts came into my radar with the film score for 'Far from the Madding Crowd' (Which was more memorable the music or Julie Christie?) but in addition to his serious classical stuff I like the songs he wrote and sang with Marian Montgomery and more recently Claire Martin.

[Simon Biazeck]

Very sad to hear this - another seriously talented light in our world has gone out. What an exceptional all-rounder he was - performer and composer of both film and concert hall repertoire. His carols, especially, are models of their kind, beautifully crafted, expressive and truly memorable. Certainly someone I would love to have met! Vale.

[Nick Armstrong]

More saddening news... The Grim Reaper has really had it in for the world of music lately

The 'Orient Express' film music first awakened me to the exhilaration of music in the cinema (judging by the release date, I was 13 - I can vividly remember the cinema I saw it in, and the experience) - that moment when the train is ready, slowly pulls out of the station and then speeds across the snowy landscape. Marvellous music.

And more recently I have listened many times to his lovely piece in a totally different vein: "A Good-Night" for a capella choir

What a versatile genius

"A Good-Night" seems a suitable epitaph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGWEhqSKTsA

[kernelbogey]

I've merged the two threads on RRB.
kb

[Lordgeous]

Wow! I'd forgotten the page turner!

Correction - I'm being stupid, it was the Melos ensemble! The one thing I can't remember is who was conducting.

It was definitely QEH, I no longer have the programme but can remember most of it, a mixed bag of chamber works inc Schumann piano quintet. One of the violins broke a string just after they'd started the Schumann. Bream also played the Dowland Fantasia P1 on the lute, for some reason!

The only LSO/Previn guitar premiere I can remember from that time was that of the Previn concerto with Williams, a work I, er, don't think I've heard since.

I found the programme! the only thing I was correct about was the conductor - Previn - and yes it was with the Melos Ensemble at the QEH, Nov 18th, 1970. Other items were the Mozart Oboe Quartet K370, a collection of lute solos (including then Dowland) and Schumann's Piano Quartet Op 44. I obviously didnt make a great impression as a page turner though!

[Richard Tarleton]

I found the programme! the only thing I was correct about was the conductor - Previn - and yes it was with the Melos Ensemble at the QEH, Nov 18th, 1970. Other items were the Mozart Oboe Quartet K370, a collection of lute solos (including then Dowland) and Schumann's Piano Quartet Op 44. I obviously didnt make a great impression as a page turner though!

Thanks, Lordgeous, much appreciated. It was a long time ago.....

[Serial_Apologist]

This tune has, for me, to be his best of any film he scored, with its redolence of thrilling events beyond our wildest adolescent dreams, unfolding in beautiful Capability Brown surroundings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKdMUaLIplA

[Stanfordian]

I recall seeing Richard Rodney Bennett playing his piano concerto at the Manchester's RNCM; I think that would have been the early 1980s. I find his Waltz from the Murder on the Orient Express filmscore quite delightful.

[Serial_Apologist]

Amended Guardian obit

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/26/sir-richard-rodney-bennett

Includes information and commentary additional to the original Guardian tribute, with an added postscript from composer Daryl Runswick.

[teamsaint]

I was at the first performance of RRB's Violin Concerto in Birmingham in 1975 played by Ralph Holmes and the CBSO under Louis Fremaux. This was the only time I saw him. Scandalously, this score still hasn't been recorded.

Another of RRB's pieces crying out for a recording is Actaeon, a 1977 Proms commission for horn and orchestra, written for Barry Tuckwell, which would suit David Pyatt down to the ground. Chandos where are you?

Another lovely score is his music for the TV drama Enchanted April. This was issued on a BBC MM CD long ago coupled with the Partita for Orchestra

I was listening to this today. It's an excellent disc, and the fourth of the jazz songs is extraordinary to hear now.
The music for Enchanted April is indeed lovely.

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting new release from Chandos just announced: https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205202

Vol 1 suggests the start of a new series

(Maybe this thread should be moved to the new 'composers' section of the Forum?)