SRCD.206 STEREO DDD

WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT (1816-1875)

1 Overture, The May Queen (6’27”) William Sterndale Bennett 2 Overture, The Wood Nymphs (13’42”)

Symphony in G minor Op. 43 (23’41”) 3 1st movement: Allegro moderato (8’09”) OVERTURES 4 2nd movement: Introduzione Maestoso – (4’44”) PARISINA • THE NAIADES - Minuetto I & II Moderato con grazia – Trio Pomposo THE WOOD NYMPHS 5 3rd movement: Romanza Larghetto cantabile (5’55”) THE MAY QUEEN 6 4th movement: Intermezzo, Tempo di Minuetto Grave - Presto (4’57”) SYMPHONY IN G MINOR 7 Overture, The Naiades * (12’32”) 8 Overture, Parisina (8’05”) London Philharmonic Orchestra (64’35”) Philharmonia Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra Nicholas Braithwaite * Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite

The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. ൿ 2007 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK illiam Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) was born in Sheffield. His father, the organist Unfortunately Lucas showed Costa the note asking him to “take my Overture a Wof Sheffield Parish Church, died when young William was three and he was little faster … the middle parts especially, with the syncopations, want keeping up to brought up by his paternal grandparents in Cambridge. When he was seven, Bennett time.” Costa was furious and Lucas had to conduct the overture in his place. Bennett took became a chorister at King’s, where his grandfather was in the choir, and two years later Costa’s refusal to conduct his overture very badly; even more so, the lack of a subsequent he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He studied violin and piano, explanation or apology. He resigned from the Philharmonic Society, depriving himself of and, later, composition with William Crotch. However, it was only when Crotch was performance opportunities, both as a soloist and composer. He also tore up the final succeeded by Cipriani Potter in 1832 that Bennett, already a star pianist, began to revision of his Parasina overture. His health collapsed and once he recovered he blossom as a composer. Mendelssohn heard him play his First Piano Concerto at the concentrated on his punishing schedule of teaching. It would be ten years before The May Academy in 1833 and invited him to Germany as a friend rather than a pupil. Queen brought him back to public attention. For the next eight or nine years there was a prolific outpouring of music, clearly David Byers encouraged by recognition at home and, more importantly, the encouragement of the Mendelssohn-Schumann circle in Leipzig where he enjoyed three lengthy stays – October 1836 to July 1837, October 1838 to March 1839 and the first three months of 1842. After this time, Bennett’s considerable teaching commitments, allied to the lack of home-grown support and opportunities for new music, meant that his compositional output declined to a trickle of mainly songs and piano pieces. Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 affected Bennett greatly. The opportunities for new works and for his appearances as a solo pianist were reduced after a falling-out with the Philharmonic Society in 1848 and he www.lyrita.co.uk suffered for a time from serious stress-induced ill-health. He’d married one of his pupils in 1844 and, with a young family to support, lots of teaching was essential to provide a Note © 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England steady income – between 1,650 and 1,700 hours of lessons in 1851 alone! But he was still highly thought of in Germany. In 1853 he was invited to become conductor of the Leipzig Cover: Sir William Sterndale Bennett, reproduced by courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY. Gewandhaus concerts, a position he had to decline because of his commitments at home. Other works by WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT available on Lyrita: These lean compositional years were marked by great industry in other areas. He Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3, Caprice founded the Bach Society (1849) and conducted the first English performance of the St Malcolm Binns, London Philharmonic Orchestra Matthew Passion; he was appointed Conductor of the Philharmonic Society concerts conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite ………………………………………………………SRCD.204 (1855); and he was elected Professor of Music at Cambridge (1856). Such public Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5, Adagio recognition seems to have restored his muse and led to another wave of works from the Malcolm Binns, Philharmonia Orchestra late 1850s onwards, including his G minor Symphony and the oratorio The Woman of conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite ………………………………………………………SRCD.205 Samaria. In 1866 he was appointed Principal of the RAM and he was knighted in 1871. Schumann, with whom Bennett would often “drink a bottle of porter”, noted the WARNING Copyright subsists in all Lyrita Recordings. Any unauthorised broadcasting. public “remarkable family resemblance” in Bennett’s music to that of Mendelssohn’s – “the performance, copying, rental or re-recording thereof in any manner whatsoever will constitute an same beauty of form, poetic depth yet clearness, and ideal purity, the same outwardly infringement of such copyright. In the United Kingdom licences for the use of recordings for public satisfying impression, – but with a difference.”Where Mendelssohn produced “the whole performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., 1 Upper James Street, London, W1F 9DE 2 7 Cambridge in January that year. He completed it back in England that summer and it was wild faërie of a Summer Night’s Dream, Bennett in his music evokes the charming figures performed in January 1837 when Moscheles conducted it at a Philharmonic Society trial. of the Merry Wives of Windsor [Bennett’s overture was written in 1834]; one spreads out At that time, Bennett was back in Leipzig and he wrote in his diary for 20 January 1837: before us the broad, deep, slumbering surface of the sea, the other lingers beside a balmy “Tonight I believe they play my Overture “Naides” [sic] at the Philharmonic in London. lake, on which the beams of the moon are trembling.” Trial night for the new compositions. Well, good luck to it. I like it better than anything I Stanford too, thought of Bennett as a poet of tranquillity rather than a poet of have written.” feverishness. “To an audience on the prowl for startling effects and for new sensations, Initially the score included parts for three trombones. It was scheduled to be played such music as Bennett’s cannot appeal: but to those who like to sit still, and can forget at the Gewandhaus on 14 February 1837 and Mendelssohn insisted that Bennett should temporarily the rush of trains, motors, telegrams and telephones, it will convey the conduct it himself. After the first rehearsal, Bennett wrote, “It did not please me – too soothing charm which was part and parcel of the man himself.” much noise, so today at the second rehearsal I dispensed with the trombones [meaning the tenor trombones] and like it all the better.” The overture retains the bass trombone Overture: The May Queen along with double woodwind, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. Ori ginally entitled Marie du Bois, this overture seems to have been one of two Bennett noted in his diary that Mendelssohn “liked it very much”. He made further pieces Bennett had worked on in Leipzig early in 1842 and intended to present to the revisions to the music, and the parts were published in Leipzig in November 1837, with the Directors of the Philharmonic Society in London upon his return. His progress was slower full score published in 1843. The overture became popular in Britain and Germany, than anticipated. In October that year he wrote to Mendelssohn, promising to send him maintaining a place in the repertory for many years. “an Overture which must be for the Gewandhaus and which I hope to send you before the year is out.” The first London performance, promised for the Hanover Square Rooms in Overture: Parisina June 1844, failed to materialise; there was a further revision, and the Overture was finally Bennett wrote Parisina while he was at the RAM during March 1835. In later years premièred in Liverpool in December 1844. There was a London performance in June 1845, he referred to it as “a very early Overture of mine written to Lord Byron’s poem”. On the but Bennett was not at all satisfied with the work. He’d shown it to Mendelssohn in 1844 original manuscript score the words Overture in F# minor, were altered to read Overture and he continued to make some “little alterations”. “I should have written to you and sent to Parisina. you my Overture according to promise”, he wrote to Mendelssohn in 1846, “but I really The first performance was given by Academy students in June 1835 and then at a could not make up my mind to like the Overture and think it good enough for the Leipzig concert of the Society of British Musicians in November. Bennett brought the overture public who have always been so kind to me and are entitled to the best I can do, whatever with him to Leipzig where it was performed at the Gewandhaus in March 1837. that is.” Mendelssohn suggested it was too short and the overture was duly expanded for an 1838 At this stage the overture’s title Marie du Bois was a not-so-veiled reference to his performance at the Society of British Musicians. Bennett’s friends criticised this version future bride Mary Wood. After Mendelssohn’s death and the dispute with the and he withdrew it. Philharmonic Society’s conductor Michael Costa in 1848, Bennett wrote comparatively It was subsequently revised several times, and Bennett was clearly very sensitive little for some ten years. Then, in 1858, when he was invited to conduct the first Leeds about it. It was scheduled for a performance at the Philharmonic Society on 29 May 1848, Festival he wrote a “pastoral”, The May Queen, Op.39, along the lines of Handel’s Acis and a fortnight after Bennett had been the soloist in Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto, K466 Galatea (which he’d edited for publication by the Handel Society in 1846). Short of time, with Michael Costa conducting. Word reached Bennett that the overture had been ill- he reused Marie du Bois as its overture, and hence it became the Overture to the May rehearsed by Costa and that it was too slow. Bennett accordingly wrote a note to his Queen. neighbour, Charles Lucas, a member of the Philharmonic orchestra with words of advice to pass on to Costa. 6 3 Overture: The Wood Nymphs, Op.20 a present for a return visit to the Gewandhaus. This overture, more often known in its day by its German title of Die Waldnymphen, Bennett’s primary influences, his heroes, were Mendelssohn and Weber, but in one was completed in Leipzig in November 1838, though most of it was probably written two of his lectures he recommended Mozart as a model for young composers. It was Mozart’s years earlier. Mendelssohn conducted its first performance at the Gewandhaus in January clean classical structures he admired, but the urgent opening “wave of life” phrases of this 1839 and it was played often in Leipzig for many years. Mendelssohn wrote to Bennett in Symphony (and its key) also seem to pay homage to his musical hero. 1843, telling him that The Wood Nymphs was a particular favourite with the public and The Philharmonic Society in London was enthusiastic about the project and a orchestra alike. Bennett had described it in a letter to his friend, the music critic performance was scheduled for 27 June 1864. At this time the work consisted of three J.W.Davison in 1836. “It rejoices in the title of The Wood Nymphs, is in F major, and after movements and Bennett preferred the title Overture-Symphonique, regarding it as “a a short introduction (Sunrise) begins in 12/8 time. You will, I think, find nothing long overture on a Symphony plan.” The finale was written just a week before the melancholy in it, but, on the contrary, plenty of fun.” performance, Bennett’s son recalling that “He composed the last movement in the train Bennett told Schumann that it was the best thing he’d written up to then and on his return journey [from Cambridge to London], telling me so when I met him at Schumann described it as “a bouquet, to which Spohr had given some flowers, Weber and King’s Cross & finished writing it on June 22nd .” Mendelssohn others, but to which Bennett had himself given the most, while the delicate For the middle movement he reused the Minuet he’d written the previous year as hand which had designed and arranged them was his and his alone.” He also recognised part of his Cambridge Installation Ode for the university’s new Chancellor, the Duke of the music’s “wonderfully tender, slender construction, to breathe of the clearest, purest Devonshire – just one of Bennett’s duties as Professor of Music. He added a Trio for the poetic vitality.” orchestra’s brass, saying, “It will surprise the audience to find that there is a full brass Bennet liked his nymphs and naiads. In his diary for 26 June 1837, written in Mainz, band in the orchestra”. The Minuet and closing Rondo were given short intermezzi to he notes that “Tonight I feel quite horridly romantic. Would like to sup with water nymphs connect them to what had gone before, the first being labelled Introduzione al Minuetto. and fly afterwards through the fresh air and join the revels of the Rhenish fairies. I do Bennett was persuaded to call the work a Symphony for its first performance which really believe if one could do as he liked, he might really be happy.” proved to be a great success, but for its Leipzig première in January 1865, which he also conducted, he simply called it Allegro, Menuetto and Rondo. The Philharmonic Society Symphony in G minor, Op.43 persuaded him to add a slow movement for a performance in July 1867. Bennett based his Bennett had written five symphonies as a student, four of which survive and the last additional movement, the Romanze (per le viole), on an unpublished song he’d written in of which is in the key of G minor. It was this G minor Symphony and Bennett’s Third 1861 and revised in 1866, Tell me where, ye summer breezes. Just when the breezes seem Piano Concerto which Mendelssohn heard when he visited London in 1835. The following to be about to work themselves up to something more stormy, a solo viola emerges to year, after Bennett had visited Mendelssohn to attend the première of St Paul, restore the poetic equilibrium. Mendelssohn wrote to Thomas Attwood in London, “I think him [Bennett] the most promising musician I know, not only in your country but also here, and I am convinced if Overture: The Naiades, Op.15 he does not become a very great musician, it is not God’s will, but his own.” Mendelssohn In May 1836, Bennett travelled to the Lower Rhine Festival with J.W.Davison for the first asked Bennett to bring both that Symphony and that Concerto with him when he came performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio St Paul. It was the subsequent trip up the Rhine to Leipzig for the first of his lengthy visits in 1836. from Düsseldorf to Mainz which inspired this overture. The delicate scoring (Bennett Years later, in August 1863, 21 years after he’d last been in Leipzig, Bennett returned delights in moments when the strings play pizzicato) and great clarity of textures are to Germany. Just as with his overture The Naiades so many years earlier, it was the Rhine clearly inspired by Mendelssohn’s overture, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. which inspired him to write this fine G minor Symphony. The river suggested a theme Bennett used some ideas from an uncompleted overture he had begun at which Bennett described as “the waves of life” and he determined to write something as 4 5 STERNDALE BENNETT: OVERTURES LPO / PHILHARMONIA LYRITA SYMPHONY IN G MINOR OP. 43 NICHOLAS BRAITHWAITE SRCD.206 DD D 06 end. .2 the 5) EO (8’05”) (8’09”) (4’44”) (5’55”) (4’57”) (6’27”) CD (12’32”) (13’42”) (64’35”) (23’41”) after R S ne TER o S and ork, (1816-187 w or T esto Pr ngland - E movement stra a ition, each f che Ed Grave o estr g aite Or Pomposo yrita L innin ded or ET BENN eg by b Orch – Rec e rio T om fr onic th Minuetto – ia ita raithw nse cantabile LE yr L B di UK on e befor lice arm 43 by ne O grazia ilh 3WX, conducted UK ned olas arm Maestoso ses. empo T Op. ow xclusive the Ph au con e ilh r p is NP25 Larghetto in n A RND h o a Nich tw on moderato P * ino d * Made Nymphs TE m under dings cor Queen include e r S Lon G Monmouth, oduzione Intr Moderato ach Romanza Intermezzo, o Allegr e II 87, Naiades May ood W in England. 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STERNDALE BENNETT: OVERTURES LPO / PHILHARMONIA LYRITA SYMPHONY IN G MINOR OP. 43 NICHOLAS BRAITHWAITE SRCD.206