William Sterndale Bennett

Sir William Sterndale Bennett

Sir William Sterndale Bennett (born April 13, 1816 in Sheffield , † February 1, 1875 in St. John's Wood , London ) was an English composer , conductor and pianist .

Life

Bennett was born in Sheffield to Robert Bennett, who was an organist . After the early death of his father, he grew up in Cambridge with his grandfather, from whom he received his first musical training. In 1824 he became a member of King's College Chapel Choire and in 1826 a member of the Royal Academy of Music , where he conducted piano studies under the teachers WH Holmes and Cipriani Potter and received composition lessons from Charles Lucas and William Crotch for the next ten years .

During his student days he composed several of his most famous works, which were particularly influenced by the contemporary music of the time in Germany, a country he visited repeatedly between 1836 and 1842.

At the Niederrheinischen Musikfest in Düsseldorf he made the acquaintance of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , whom he met again a short time later in Leipzig , where Bennett was welcomed as a promising young artist by the leading musicians of the Romantic era . Bennett made an enthusiastically received performance at a Gewandhaus concert with his third piano concerto. Robert Schumann praised him profusely.

Mendelssohn had the greatest influence on Bennett's musical language. After his great success in Germany, on his return in 1834 he became organist at St. Anne's Chapel in Wandsworth . In the same year he composed the Overture to Parisina and the Concerto in C minor . Due to an unpublished piano concerto in F minor and the overture Die Najaden , the Broadwood and Sons company donated the composer a stay in Leipzig in 1836, where the overture was performed in a concert on February 13, 1837 in the Gewandhaus. He visited Leipzig again in 1840 and 1841. He composed his Capriccio in E major for piano and orchestra, which he dedicated to the pianist Louise Dulcken , the sister of the Leipzig concert master Ferdinand David , and the overture Die Waldnymphe .

Back in London he devoted himself increasingly to teaching. In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain James Wood, RN In 1856 he became Professor of Music at Cambridge University . In the same year he was appointed chief conductor of the Philharmonic Society of London . He held this position until 1866 when he became director of the Royal Academy of Music .

With the exception of opera, Bennett turned to all musical forms. His outstanding compositions include piano music (solo works, The Lake , The Millstream and The Fountain and his third piano concerto ); Orchestral works ( symphony in G minor and the overture The Naiads ); and vocal music ( cantata The May Queen ). For the 50th anniversary of the Philharmonic Society, he composed the overture Paradise and the Peri in 1862 . For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in 1867 he created the sacred cantata The Woman of Samaria .

In 1870 Bennett received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University , and in 1871 he was raised to the nobility. He died in St John's Wood, London, in 1875 .

Works

Orchestral music

• Piano Concerto No. 1, D minor, Op. 1 (1832)
• Piano Concerto No. 2, E flat major, Op. 4 (1833)
• Piano Concerto No. 3, C minor, Op. 9 (1834)
• Piano Concerto, F minor (1836)
• Piano Concerto No. 4, F minor, Op. 19 (1838)
• Concert piece in A minor (1841-3)
• Parisina (Overture), Op. 3 (1835)
• The Naiads (Overture), Op. 15 (1836)
• The Wood Nymph (Overture), Op. 20 (1838)
• Paradise and the Peri (Fantasy Overture), Op. 42 (1862)
• Symphony in G minor, Op. 43 (1864, revised 1867) (commissioned for the Royal Philharmonic Society)

piano

• Three Musical Sketches op.10 (1836) ( digitized )
  • The Lake
  • The Mill Stream
  • The Fountain
• Three Impromptus op.12 (1836)
• Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 13 (1837)
• Three Romances op. 14 (1836–37)
• F antasie A major op. 16 (1837)
• Suite de Pieces op. 24 (1841)
• Sonata "The Maid of Orleans" op. 46 (1869–73)

Chamber music

• Sextet for piano and strings in F sharp minor, Op. 8 (1835)
• Piano trio, Op. 26 (1839)
• Sonata for violoncello & piano, Op. 31 (1852)

Choral works

• The May Queen (A Pastoral), Op. 39 (1858)
• The Woman of Samaria (Sacred Cantata), Op. 44 (1867-8)

Songs

• Six Songs: First Set, Op. 23 (1834-42)
• Six Songs: Second Set, Op. 35 (1837-44)

literature

• JR Sterndale Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett , Cambridge 1907 ( digitized )

Web links

• Works by and about William Sterndale Bennett in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by William Sterndale Bennett on the International Music Score Library Project