William Sterndale Bennett News
British musician (1816-75)
Commemorations 2025 (Death: William Sterndale Bennett)
- piano
- opera
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- composer, music teacher, university teacher, conductor, pianist
streaming
Last update
2024-03-23
Refresh
2024-01-21 15:43:00
From large-scale Liszt and Wagner to intimate Schumann and Schubert at Lucerne's Le Piano Symphonique
[…] to him by the guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella from Carnaval and someone Schumann was briefly engaged to in 1834. Thus, as with much of his music, an autobiographical element enters the work made more complex by the fact that Schumann did not use all the variations in the published work, and added a final etude based on another theme! What we have is a series of character pieces; Symphonic Etudes was dedicated to Sterndale Bennett, who played it frequently in England, though Schumann would advise his wife Clara not to play it in public!From the very outset, Leonskaja played with a subtle expressiveness, giving each etude its own distinctive atmosphere, yet doing so with what were often small gestures, just what was needed and not showy, even in the more bravura movements. Throughout the work she created remarkable changes of mood with very subtle means, and we were […]
2023-08-25 07:57:00
Prom 50: large-scale drama from Allan Clayton, Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings in Handel's Samson
[…] most notably in the double chorus of Philistines and Israelites. It is perhaps worth noting, that Handel frames the music in a way which makes the Philistines as approachable as the Israelites, something lacking in Milton, who evidently hated the Philistines. Nor does Handel follow Milton's moral tone with his hatred of sin, Dalila is a more complex, sympathetic character. Evidently Mendelssohn was rather shocked by her music, as detailed in a somewhat priggish letter to Sterndale Bennett in 1839.A consequence of the work's cleaving to Milton is that the role of Samson is more passive than in Saint-Saens' opera. Here, the drama comes from the blind Samson's interactions with his father, his former lover and with the Philistine's blustering champion. His final heroic act takes place off stage, and the character's final air, 'Thus when the sun' is a long way from heroic derring-do. Allan Clayton was perhaps almost the […]
2021-11-05 10:32:00
Review of the Hallé concert with Marc-André Hamelin and Ryan Wigglesworth, at the Bridgewater Hall
Marc-Andre Hamelin (credit Sim Cannety-Clarke) Ryan Wigglesworth is one of those musicians who are practically perfect in every way. The greatest thing to come out of Sheffield, musically, since Sterndale Bennett, he’s pianist, conductor, academic and composer. So with him as Artist in Association the Hallé get lots of options. Last night we witnessed two of them: him as composer, and as conductor in charge of his own work as well as that of others. His Piano Concerto was premiered at the BBC Proms in 2019 with the brilliant Marc-André Hamelin as soloist, and Hamelin was here in Manchester to play it again. I can’t pretend that I’d expect it to become a popular favourite (the whole idea of concerto as solo showpiece with big tunes, originating in vocal aria forms and making great box office in the 19th and pre-Second World War 20th centuries, seems to have rather […]
2021-08-13 08:38:43
Late romanticism to the fore in Vladimir Jurowski, the London Philharmonic Orchestra & Steven Isserlis' exploration of Walton & Hindemith at the BBC Proms
[…] obvious by a long chalk, shed a fascinating light on the sound worlds of the different works. A thoughtful and brilliant programme. After the concert, John Gilhooly as chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society presented Vladimir Jurowski with the RPS Gold Medal which, like the Royal Albert Hall, is celebrating its 150th anniversary. The award was initiated in 1870 (for the centenary of Beethoven's birth) and its first recipient in 1871 was the composer William Sterndale Bennett. Vladimir Jurowski became the LPO's principal guest conductor in 2003, going on to become principal conductor in 2007. He is taking over as music director of Bavarian State Opera and now becomes the LPO's conductor emeritus as Edward Gardner takes over as principal conductor. The concert is on BBC Sounds for 60 days. Never miss out on future posts by following us The blog is free, but I'd […]
or
- timeline: Composers (Europe). Conductors (Europe). Performers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): S...