97-478: Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 1816 – 1 February 1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the London Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he remained for ten years. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. Among those impressed by Bennett
194-529: A Northumberland family, and the actress Maria Duncan, he was born in London 5 October 1813. He was educated at University College School and the Royal Academy of Music , where he studied the pianoforte under W. H. Holmes and composition under George Alexander Macfarren . Originally with ambitions to be a composer, Davison became first a music teacher, and then in the 1830s a music writer and critic. In 1842 he
291-401: A biography of his father. Many of the composer's descendants became musicians or performers, including: Stanford wrote of Bennett: He maintained his British characteristics throughout his life ... The English take a kind of pride in concealing their feelings and emotions, and this is reflected in their folk-song. The Thames has no rapids and no falls; it winds along under its woods in
388-503: A composer of the range (not necessarily the stature) of Chopin". It would appear that Bennett displayed and aroused greater emotion through his piano technique than from his compositions. Stanford writes that "his playing ... was undoubtedly remarkable and had a fire and energy in it which does not appear on the gentle surface of his music", and notes that Bennett's performances were eulogized by, amongst others, John Field , Clara Schumann, and Ferdinand Hiller . Bennett's attitudes to
485-410: A cost of £51,000 on the site of an orphanage. In 1976 the academy acquired the houses situated on the north side and built between them a new opera theatre donated by the philanthropist Sir Jack Lyons and named after him and two new recital spaces, a recording studio, an electronic music studio, several practice rooms and office space. The academy again expanded its facilities in the late 1990s, with
582-593: A director of the Philharmonic Society of London. He helped to relieve the society's perilous finances by persuading Mendelssohn and Spohr to perform with the Society's orchestra, attracting full houses and much-needed income. In 1842, the orchestra, under the composer's baton, gave the London premiere of Mendelssohn's Third ( Scottish ) Symphony , two months after its world premiere in Leipzig. In 1844, Mendelssohn conducted
679-559: A few years place him very high in his profession. In the audience was Felix Mendelssohn , who was sufficiently impressed to invite Bennett to the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf . Bennett asked, "May I come to be your pupil?" Mendelssohn replied, "No, no. You must come to be my friend". In 1834, Bennett was appointed organist of St Ann's, Wandsworth , London, a chapel of ease to Wandsworth parish church. He held
776-630: A fine collection of lutes and guitars . The academy's museum displays many of these items. The Orchestral Library has approximately 4,500 sets of orchestral parts. Other collections include the libraries of Sir Henry Wood and Otto Klemperer . Soon after violinist Yehudi Menuhin 's death, the Royal Academy of Music acquired his personal archive, which includes sheet music marked up for performance, correspondence, news articles and photographs relating to Menuhin, autograph musical manuscripts, and several portraits of Paganini . Harriet Cohen bequeathed
873-597: A gentle stream, never dry and never halting; it is the type of the spirit of English folkmusic ... England is as remote from Keltic fire and agony, as the Thames is from the Spey . Bennett was a typical specimen of this English characteristic. He was a poet, but of the school of Wordsworth rather than of Byron and Shelley . W. B. Squire wrote in 1885: His sense of form was so strong, and his refined nature so abhorred any mere seeking after effect, that his music sometimes gives
970-414: A large collection of paintings, some photographs and her gold bracelet to the academy, with a request that the room in which the paintings were to be housed was named the "Arnold Bax Room". Noted for her performances of Bach and modern English music, she was a friend and advocate of Arnold Bax and also premièred Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto—a work dedicated to her—in 1933. In 1886, Franz Liszt performed at
1067-424: A music award to musicians or scholars who have made an important contribution to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach . The Gilbert Betjemann Prize is a gold medal awarded by the Royal Academy of Music "for operatic singing". James William Davison James William Davison (5 October 1813 – 24 March 1885) was an English journalist, known as the music critic of The Times . The son of James Davison, of
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#17328554957021164-520: A number of his works, including a symphony, his piano concerti, some vocal music and many of his piano compositions, have been recorded. In his bicentenary year of 2016, several concerts of his music and other related events took place. Bennett was born in Sheffield , Yorkshire , the third child and only son of Robert Bennett, the organist of Sheffield parish church , and his wife Elizabeth, née Donn. In addition to his duties as an organist, Robert Bennett
1261-492: A pastoral cantata , The May Queen , Op. 39, for the opening of the Leeds Town Hall in 1858; an Ode (Op. 40) with words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson for the opening of the 1862 International Exhibition in London; an Installation Ode for Cambridge University (Op. 41) with words by Charles Kingsley , which included a lament for the late Prince Albert; a symphony in G minor (Op. 43); a sacred cantata, The Woman of Samaria for
1358-1050: A selection of historical English pianos from 1790 to 1850, from the famous Mobbs Collection, original manuscripts by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Sullivan and Vaughan Williams, musical memorabilia and other exhibits. Former students include Olga Athaide Craen , John Barbirolli , Judith Bingham , Dennis Brain , Alan Bush , Doreen Carwithen , Rebecca Clarke , Jacob Collier , Clifford Curzon , Louis Dowdeswell , Edward Gardner , Lesley Garrett , David Patrick Gedge Evelyn Glennie , Eleanor Greenwood , Amy Horrocks , Dorothy Howell , Katherine Jenkins , Elton John , Annie Lennox , Kate Loder , Felicity Lott , Moura Lympany , Margot MacGibbon , Vanessa-Mae , Denis Matthews , Michael Nyman , Elsie Southgate , Eva Ruth Spalding , Florence Margaret Spencer Palmer , Ashan Pillai , Simon Rattle , Cecile Stevens , Arthur Sullivan , Eva Turner , Maxim Vengerov , Kate Lucy Ward , E. Florence Whitlock , Margaret Jones Wiles , Carol Anne Williams and Henry Wood . The current principal of
1455-611: A single Symphony or Overture in one concert since last June. I sincerely hope that Prince Albert ... will do something to improve our taste. On Bennett's third trip, from January to March 1842, in which he also visited Kassel , Dresden and Berlin, he played his Caprice for piano and orchestra, Op. 22, in Leipzig. Despite his then-pessimistic view of music in England, Bennett missed his chance to establish himself in Germany. The musicologist Nicholas Temperley writes One might guess that
1552-525: A symphony and an overture to The Tempest . The concerto received its public premiere at an orchestral concert in Cambridge on 28 November 1832, with Bennett as soloist. Performances soon followed in London and, by royal command, at Windsor Castle , where Bennett played in April 1833 for King William IV and Queen Adelaide . The RAM published the concerto at its own expense as a tribute. A further London performance
1649-675: A tribute to its sometime conductor: pieces from his unfinished music for Sophocles 's tragedy Ajax , and the complete The Woman of Samaria , for which the choir was provided by the RAM. These were followed by Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto , for which the soloist was Joseph Joachim , to whom Mendelssohn had introduced Bennett at Joachim's London debut in 1844. The final concert of the season (5 July) included an Idyll in memory of Bennett composed by his old associate George Alexander Macfarren . Bennett's son, James Robert Sterndale Bennett (1847–1928), wrote
1746-427: A woman en travesti ). This was among the few failures of his career at the RAM. The Observer wryly commented, "of the page ... we will not speak", but acknowledged that Bennett sang pleasingly and to the satisfaction of the audience. The Harmonicon , however, called his performance "in every way a blot on the piece". Among Bennett's student compositions were a piano concerto (No. 1 in D minor, Op. 1),
1843-802: Is omitted. In a subsequent lecture he opined that Verdi was "immeasurably inferior" to Gioachino Rossini , and could only say in favour of Berlioz that he "must be allowed the character of a successful and devoted artist ... it cannot be doubted that his treatment of a great orchestra is masterly in the extreme." Of Wagner, "the hero of the so-called ' music of the future '", Bennett noted "I have no intention of treating him disrespectfully; that I entirely misunderstand him and his musical opinions may be my fault and not his. At any rate he possesses an influence at this moment over musical life, which it would be impossible to overlook." Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music ( RAM ) in London , England ,
1940-454: Is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa . It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of Wellington . The academy provides undergraduate and postgraduate training across instrumental performance, composition, jazz , musical theatre and opera , and recruits musicians from around
2037-627: The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1867; and finally a second Piano Sonata ( The Maid of Orleans , Op. 46). Many of these works were composed during his summer holidays which were spent at Eastbourne . The Ode for the Exhibition was the cause of a further imbroglio with Costa, who although in charge of music for the Exhibition refused to conduct anything by Bennett. Eventually it was conducted by Prosper Sainton , between works by Meyerbeer and Daniel Auber also commissioned for
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#17328554957022134-507: The Gewandhaus as the soloist in his Third Piano Concerto with Mendelssohn conducting. He later conducted his Naiads overture. During this visit he also arranged the first cricket match ever played in Germany, ("as fitting a Yorkshireman" as the musicologist Percy M. Young comments). At this time Bennett wrote to Davison: [Mendelssohn] took me to his house and gave me the printed score of [his overture] 'Melusina', and afterwards we supped at
2231-594: The Lohengrins ." Visiting the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth in 1876 for the first production of Wagner's Ring cycle , he commented "Wagner...by crushing the buds of melody as they spring up, buds which might blossom into seemly flowers, cramps the manifold resources of expression which are the golden heritage of his art." Davison's antagonism to Wagner was noted by musicologists of the Nazi regime in Germany, and (although he
2328-658: The Royal College of Music in South Kensington . The academy's history took a turn for the better when its recently appointed Principal (and former pupil) William Sterndale Bennett took on the chairmanship of the academy's board of directors and established its finances and reputation on a new footing. The academy's first building was in Tenterden Street, Hanover Square . Arnold Bax recalled it as an architectural rabbit warren. "The three eighteenth-century houses which
2425-726: The SOCRATES student and staff exchange programme. In 1991, the academy introduced a fully accredited degree in performance studies, and in September 1999, it became a full constituent college of the University of London, in both cases becoming the first UK conservatoire to do so. The academy has students from over 50 countries, following diverse programmes including instrumental performance, conducting, composition, jazz, musical theatre, historical performance, and opera. The academy has an established relationship with King's College London , particularly
2522-509: The Wood Nymphs Overture, Op. 20. Returning to England, he wrote to his Leipzig publisher Friedrich Kistner in 1840, bemoaning the difference between England and Germany (and hoping that a German would redress the situation): You know what a dreadful place England is for music; and in London I have nobody who I can talk to about such things, all the people are mad with [Sigismond] Thalberg and [Johann] Strauss [I], and I have not heard
2619-455: The 'Hôtel de Bavière', where all the musical clique feed ... The party consist[ed] of Mendelssohn, [Ferdinand] David , Stamity [sic] ... and a Mr. Schumann , a musical editor, who expected to see me a fat man with large black whiskers. Bennett had been at first slightly in awe of Mendelssohn, but no such formality ever attached to Bennett's friendship with Robert Schumann, with whom he went on long country walks by day and visited
2716-553: The 1840s and 1850s he composed little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. He also actively promoted concerts of chamber music. From 1848 onward, his career was punctuated by antagonism between himself and the conductor Michael Costa . In 1858, Bennett returned to composition, but his later works, though popular, were considered old-fashioned and did not arouse as much critical enthusiasm as his youthful compositions had done. He
2813-469: The Academy directors. Bennett resigned from the RAM at this overbearing behaviour, and was not to return until 1866. Towards the end of 1862 Bennett's wife died after a painful illness. His biographer W. B. Squire suggests that "he never recovered from the effects of Mrs. Bennett's death, and that henceforward a painful change in him became apparent to his friends." In 1865, Bennett again visited Leipzig where he
2910-558: The Amati family; manuscripts by Purcell , Handel and Vaughan Williams ; and a collection of performing materials that belonged to leading performers. It is a constituent college of the University of London and a registered charity under English law. Famous academy alumni include Henry Wood , Simon Rattle , Brian Ferneyhough , Elton John and Annie Lennox . The academy was founded by John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland , in 1822 with
3007-603: The Department of Music, whose students receive instrumental tuition at the academy. In return, many students at the academy take a range of humanities choices at King's, and its extended academic musicological curriculum. The Junior Academy, for pupils under the age of 18, meets every Saturday. The academy's library contains over 160,000 items, including significant collections of early printed and manuscript materials and audio facilities. The library also houses archives dedicated to Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir Henry Wood . Among
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3104-530: The English organist and composer Thomas Attwood , "I think him the most promising young musician I know, not only in your country but also here, and I am convinced if he does not become a very great musician, it is not God's will, but his own". After Bennett's first visit to Germany there followed three extended visits to work in Leipzig . He was there from October 1836 to June 1837, during which time he made his debut at
3201-659: The Library's most valuable possessions are the autograph manuscripts of Purcell's The Fairy-Queen , Sullivan's The Mikado and The Martyr of Antioch , Vaughan Williams ' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Serenade to Music , and the newly discovered Handel Gloria . A grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund has assisted in the purchase of the Robert Spencer Collection—a set of Early English Song and Lute music, as well as
3298-494: The London premiere of Schumann's Paradise and the Peri in the 1856 season, which, by engaging Jenny Lind as soloist, and with Prince Albert in the audience, brought in a substantial subscription, but was musically disastrous (and was not helped by the chaos of a seriously overcrowded venue). One member of the audience thought Lind's voice was "worn and strained" and that there would have been "vehement demonstrations of derision had not
3395-472: The RAM but to save it from imminent dissolution. The RAM had been temporarily saved from bankruptcy by grants from the government, authorised by Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer , in 1864 and 1865. The following year Gladstone was out of office, and the new Chancellor, Disraeli , refused to renew the grant. The directors of the RAM decided to close it, over the head of Bennett as Principal. Bennett, with
3492-446: The RAM were members of the orchestra at Covent Garden opera house. Chorley added, "I cannot remember one great instrumental player the Academy has turned out during the last 25 years." Bennett himself was not entirely in accord with the emphasis Chorley placed on instrumental training for the RAM; he was concerned (and with reason) that such a policy could mean supply outstripping demand for graduates. Bennett himself taught composition at
3589-415: The RAM. The next year the post of professor of music at the University of Edinburgh became vacant. With Mendelssohn's strong encouragement Bennett applied for the position. Mendelssohn wrote to the principal of the university, "I beg you to use your powerful influence on behalf of that candidate whom I consider in every respect worthy of the place, a true ornament to his art and his country, and indeed one of
3686-426: The RAM; this was undoubtedly where his greatest interests lay at this period, and it appears that the examples he gave to his pupils concentrated on his own 'conservative' favourites of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Mozart. Nonetheless, the reputation and popularity of the RAM increased markedly under his stewardship. The number of pupils, which had dropped catastrophically at the time when the directors had proposed closing
3783-534: The Royal Academy of Music perform in other venues around London including Kings Place , St Marylebone Parish Church and the South Bank Centre . The academy's public museum is situated in the York Gate building, which is connected to the academy's building via a basement link. The museum houses the academy's collections, including a major collection of Cremonese stringed instruments dated between 1650 and 1740,
3880-522: The Royal Academy of Music, Hon ARAM). Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon FRAM) is awarded by the Governing Body of the academy. As a full member of the University of London , the academy can nominate people to the University of London honorary doctorate (Hon DMus). The Royal Academy of Music manages the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize (sponsored by the Kohn Foundation ),
3977-656: The Society impractical. This gave an "impression that [Bennett] was capable of exerting only waning authority amongst professionals". Moreover, comparing London with other centres around the mid-century, Ehrlich notes " Verdi was in Milan, Wagner in Dresden, Meyerbeer in Paris, Brahms in Vienna, and Liszt in Weimar . London had the richest of audiences, and was offered Sterndale Bennett." He instances
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4074-591: The Society's concerts". In May 1836, Bennett travelled to Düsseldorf in the company of Davison to attend the Lower Rhenish Music Festival for the first performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio St Paul . Bennett's visit was enabled by a subsidy by the piano-making firm of John Broadwood & Sons . Inspired by his journey up the Rhine, Bennett began work on his overture The Naiads (Op. 15). After Bennett left for home, Mendelssohn wrote to their mutual friend,
4171-470: The academy and New York's Juilliard School at the Proms and at New York's Lincoln Center. Conductors who have recently worked with the orchestras include Semyon Bychkov , Daniel Barenboim , Sir Simon Rattle , Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Christian Thielemann . Famous people who have conducted the academy's orchestra also include Carl Maria von Weber in 1826 and Richard Strauss in 1926. For many years,
4268-558: The academy celebrated the work of a living composer with a festival in the presence of the composer. Previous composer festivals at the academy have been devoted to the work of Witold Lutosławski , Michael Tippett , Krzysztof Penderecki , Olivier Messiaen , Hans Werner Henze , Luciano Berio , Elliott Carter , Stavros Papanikolaou , as well as academy graduates, Alfred Schnittke , György Ligeti , Franco Donatoni , Galina Ustvolskaya , Arvo Pärt , György Kurtág and Mauricio Kagel . In February–March 2006, an academy festival celebrated
4365-554: The academy is Jonathan Freeman-Attwood , appointed in July 2008. The Patron was Queen Elizabeth II and the president is the Duchess of Gloucester . Diana, Princess of Wales , was the president of the academy from 1985 until 1997. The Royal Academy of Music publishes every year a list of persons who have been selected to be awarded one of the Royal Academy's honorary awards. These awards are for alumni who have distinguished themselves within
4462-599: The academy to celebrate the creation of the Franz Liszt Scholarship and in 1843 Mendelssohn was made an honorary member of the academy. Academy students perform regularly in the academy's concert venues, and also nationally and internationally under conductors such as the late Sir Colin Davis , Yan Pascal Tortelier , Christoph von Dohnányi , the late Sir Charles Mackerras and Trevor Pinnock . In summer 2012, John Adams conducted an orchestra which combined students from
4559-571: The addition of 1–5 York Gate, designed by John Nash in 1822, to house the new museum , a musical theatre studio and several teaching and practice rooms. To link the main building and 1–5 York Gate a new underground passage and the underground barrel-vaulted 150-seat David Josefowitz recital hall were built on the courtyard between the mentioned structures. The academy's current facilities are situated on Marylebone Road in central London adjacent to Regent's Park . The Royal Academy of Music offers training from infant level (Junior Academy), with
4656-789: The advance of national musical education." The schemes referred to were two proposals which would have undoubtedly undermined the viability and influence of the RAM, one to merge it in a proposed National School of Music, backed by the Royal Society of Arts under Henry Cole , the other to relocate it (without security of tenure) in the premises of the Royal Albert Hall . The RAM in 1866 was in poor shape in terms of influence and reputation as well as financially. The critic Henry Chorley published data in that year showing that only 17 per cent of orchestral players in Britain had studied there. No alumni of
4753-417: The audience been restrained in the presence of Royalty". Newspaper critics were scarcely more complimentary. Temperley writes: "After 1855 [Bennett] was spurred by belated honours, and occasional commissions, to compose a respectable number of significant and substantial works, though it was too late to recapture his early self-confidence." Works from his later years included the cello Sonata Duo for Piatti;
4850-526: The best and most highly gifted musicians now living: Mr. Sterndale Bennett." Despite this advocacy Bennett's application was unsuccessful. Bennett had been impressed in Leipzig with the concept of chamber music concerts, which had been, apart from string quartet recitals, a rarity in London. He began in 1843 a series of such concerts including piano trios of Louis Spohr and Ludwig van Beethoven , works for piano solo, and string sonatas by Mendelssohn and others. Amongst those taking part in these recitals were
4947-474: The cause was "disease of the brain"; unable to rise one morning, he had fallen into a decline and died within a week. He was buried on 6 February, close to the tomb of Henry Purcell , in Westminster Abbey . The a cappella quartet, "God is a Spirit", from his cantata The Woman of Samaria , was sung to accompany the obsequies. The first concert of the Philharmonic Society's season, on 18 March, began with
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#17328554957025044-594: The college; they were published in 1853 and remained in widespread use by music students well into the twentieth century. In a profile of Bennett published in 1903, F. G. Edwards noted that Bennett's duties as a teacher severely reduced his opportunity to compose, although he maintained his reputation as a soloist in annual chamber music and piano recitals at the Hanover Square Rooms , which included chamber music and concerti by Johann Sebastian Bach and Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte , "then almost novelties". Over
5141-461: The contrary, and am tired of quarrelling with them. They are a worse set this year than we have ever had." In May 1848, on the opening of Queen's College, London , Bennett, as one of the Founding Directors, delivered an inaugural lecture and joined the staff, while continuing his work at the RAM and private teaching. He wrote the thirty Preludes and Lessons , Op. 33, for his piano students at
5238-522: The demands of his work as a teacher and pianist, there were other factors that may have contributed to Bennett's long withdrawal from large-scale composition. Charles Villiers Stanford writes that the death of Mendelssohn in 1847 came to Bennett as "an irreparable loss". The following year, Bennett severed his hitherto close ties with the Philharmonic Society, which had presented many of his most successful compositions. This break resulted from an initially minor disagreement with Costa over his interpretation at
5335-580: The early loss of both parents produced in Bennett an exceptionally intense need for reassurance and encouragement. England could not provide this for a native composer in his time. He found it temporarily in German musical circles; yet, when the opportunity came to claim his earned place as a leader in German music, he was not quite bold enough to grasp it. Bennett returned to London in March 1842, and continued his teaching at
5432-445: The final rehearsal of Bennett's overture Parisina . The intransigence of both parties inflated this into a furious row, and began a breach between them which was to last throughout Bennett's career. Bennett was disgusted at the Society's failure to back him up, and resigned. From this point in his life Bennett was ever increasingly involved in the burdens of musical organization. In the opinion of Percy Young, he became "the prototype of
5529-404: The full the exquisitely refined and delicate nature of his genius. Temperley suggests that, despite his reverence for Mendelssohn, Bennett took Mozart as his model. Geoffrey Bush agrees that "[h]is best work, like his piano playing, was full of passion none the less powerful for being Mozartian (that is to say, perfectly controlled)", and characterizes him as "essentially a composer for the piano,
5626-458: The help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas Bochsa . The academy was granted a royal charter by King George IV in 1830. The founding of the academy was greatly supported by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . He was a keen violinist himself and was determined to make the academy a success. The academy faced closure in 1866; this was part of the reason for the founding of
5723-474: The impression of being produced under restraint. He seldom, if ever, gave rein to his unbridled fancy; everything is justly proportioned, clearly defined, and kept within the limits which the conscientiousness of his self-criticism would not let him overstep. It is this which makes him, as has been said, so peculiarly a musician's composer: the broad effects and bold contrasts which an uneducated public admires are absent; it takes an educated audience to appreciate to
5820-431: The institution comprised were departitioned, one conjectured, with fearsome violence. Wherefore else the need for those torturous tunnellings, that labyrinthine intricacy of passages, the cul-de-sacs, and follies? It took the average new student about a month to get his or her bearings." In 1911 the institution moved to the current premises, designed by Sir Ernest George (which include the 450-seat Duke's Hall), built at
5917-405: The institution, rose steadily. At the end of 1868 there had been 66 students. By 1870 the number was 121, and by 1872 it was 176. Bennett received honorary degrees from the universities of Cambridge (1867) and Oxford (1870). The Philharmonic Society awarded him its Beethoven gold medal in 1867. In 1871, he was knighted by Queen Victoria (two years after his old antagonist Costa had been accorded
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#17328554957026014-520: The last six concerts of the society's season, in which among his own works and those of many others he included music by Bennett. From 1846 to 1854, the Society's conductor was Michael Costa , of whom Bennett disapproved; Costa was too devoted to Italian opera and not a partisan of the German masters, as was Bennett. Bennett wrote to Mendelssohn on 24 July, displaying some querulousness, "The Philharmonic Directors have engaged Costa ... with which I am not very well pleased, but I could not persuade them to
6111-457: The latter coinciding with the publication of Bennett's own edition of the work, with a translation of the text into English by his pupil Helen Johnston. For the 1851 Great Exhibition , Bennett was appointed a Metropolitan Local Commissioner, Musical Juror and superintendent for the music at the opening Royal ceremony. In June 1853 Bennett made his last public appearance as a soloist with orchestra in his own Fourth Piano Concerto. This performance
6208-674: The local taverns by night. Each dedicated a large-scale piano work to the other: in August 1837 Schumann dedicated his Symphonic Studies to Bennett, who reciprocated the dedication a few weeks later with his Fantasie , Op. 16. Schumann was eloquently enthusiastic about Bennett's music; in 1837 he devoted an essay to Bennett in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , praising amongst other works Bennett's Op. 10 Musical Sketches for piano, "three of Bennett's loveliest pictures". The essay ends: "For some time now he has been peering over my shoulder, and for
6305-460: The modern administrative musician ... he eventually built for himself an impregnable position, but in doing so destroyed his once considerable creative talent." Bennett became a victim as well as a beneficiary of a trend towards professionalization in the music industry in Britain; "The Principal and the Professor became powerful, whereas the status of the composer and the executant (unless foreign)
6402-569: The music of his continental contemporaries, aside from that of Mendelssohn, were cautious. Arthur Sullivan claimed that Bennett was "bitterly prejudiced against the new school, as he called it. He would not have a note of Schumann; and as for Wagner, he was outside the pale of criticism." In Bennett's 1858 lecture on "The visits of illustrious foreign musicians to England", the latest mention is of Mendelssohn, bypassing Chopin, Wagner, Verdi and Hector Berlioz , (who all only came to England after Mendelssohn's last visit); Liszt (who visited London in 1827)
6499-399: The music profession (Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, FRAM), distinguished musicians who are not alumni (Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, Hon RAM), alumni who have made a significant contribution to the music profession (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, ARAM) and to people who are not alumni but have offered important services to the institution (Honorary Associate of
6596-456: The newly formed (later Royal) College of Organists awarded him an Honorary Fellowship. In 1858 came yet another clash involving Costa, when the autocratic Earl of Westmorland , the original founder of the RAM, saw fit to arrange a subscription concert for the Academy to include a Mass of his own composition, to be conducted by Costa and using the orchestra and singers of the Opera, over the heads of
6693-451: The occasion. The affair leaked into the press, and Costa was widely condemned for his behaviour. In March 1856 Bennett, while still teaching at the RAM and Queen's College, was elected Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge . He modernised the system of awarding music degrees, instituting viva voce examinations and requiring candidates for doctorates to first take the degree of Bachelor of Music . Two years later on 8 June 1868
6790-468: The offer came too late for Bennett to make alternative arrangements for some of his pupils, and he refused to let them down. After the controversial 1855 season of the Philharmonic Society at which Richard Wagner conducted, Bennett was elected to take over the conductorship in 1856, a post which he held for ten years. At his first concert, on 14 April 1856, the piano soloist in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto
6887-403: The piano virtuoso Alexander Dreyschock and Frédéric Chopin 's pupil, the 13-year-old Carl Filtsch . In 1844, Bennett married Mary Anne Wood (1824–1862), the daughter of a naval commander. Composition gave way to a ceaseless round of teaching and musical administration. The writer and composer Geoffrey Bush sees the marriage as marking a break in Bennett's career; "from 1844 to 1856 [Bennett]
6984-474: The post for a year, after which he taught private students in central London and at schools in Edmonton and Hendon . Although by common consent the RAM had little more to teach him after his seventh or eighth year, he was permitted to remain as a free boarder there until 1836, which suited him well, as his income was small. In May 1835 Bennett made his first appearance at the Philharmonic Society of London , playing
7081-530: The premiere of his Second Piano Concerto (in E-flat major, Op. 4), and in the following year he gave there the premiere of his Third Concerto (in C minor, Op. 9). Bennett was also a member of the Society of British Musicians , founded in 1834 to promote specifically British musicians and compositions. Davison wrote in 1834 that Bennett's overture named for Lord Byron 's Parisina was "the best thing that has been played at
7178-426: The principal of the RAM, William Crotch , and then under Cipriani Potter , who took over as principal in 1832. Among the friends Bennett made at the Academy was the future music critic J. W. Davison . Bennett did not study singing, but when the RAM mounted a student production of The Marriage of Figaro in 1830, Bennett, aged fourteen, was cast in the mezzo-soprano role of the page boy Cherubino (usually played by
7275-529: The same honour), and, in 1872, he received a public testimonial before a large audience at St James's Hall , London. The money subscribed at this event founded a scholarship and prize at the RAM, which is still awarded. An English Heritage blue plaque has been placed at the house in 38 Queensborough Terrace, London, where Bennett lived during many of his later years. Bennett died, aged 58, on 1 February 1875 at his house in St John's Wood , London. According to his son
7372-494: The second time he has asked 'But what are you writing?' Dear friend, I shall write no more than: 'If only you knew!'" Bennett however had from the outset some reservations about Schumann's music, which, he told Davison in 1837, he thought "rather too eccentric". On Bennett's return to London he took up a teaching post at the RAM which he held until 1858. During his second long stay in Germany, from October 1838 to March 1839, he played his Fourth Piano Concerto (Op. 19, in F minor) and
7469-722: The senior Academy awarding the LRAM diploma, BMus and higher degrees to PhD / DMus. The former degree GRSM , equivalent to a university honours degree and taken by some students, was phased out in the 1990s. All undergraduates now take the University of London degree of BMus. Most academy students are classical performers: strings, piano, vocal studies including opera, brass, woodwind, conducting and choral conducting, composition, percussion, harp, organ, accordion, guitar. There are also departments for historical performance, musical theatre performance and jazz. The academy collaborates with other conservatoires worldwide, including participating in
7566-525: The support of the faculty and the students, assumed the Chairmanship of the board of directors. In Stanford 's words, "As Chairman he succeeded, after the Government had withdrawn its annual grant, in winning it back, restored the financial credit of the house, and during seven years bore the harassing anxiety of complex negotiations with various public bodies of great influence who were discussing schemes for
7663-414: The violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini , who first visited London 175 years earlier in 1831. The festival included a recital by academy professor Maxim Vengerov , who performed on Il Cannone Guarnerius , Paganini's favourite violin. Academy instrumentalists and musical theatre students have also performed in a series of concerts with the academy alumnus Sir Elton John . The students and ensembles of
7760-472: The world, with a student community representing more than 50 nationalities. It is committed to lifelong learning, from Junior Academy, which trains musicians up to the age of 18, through Open Academy community music projects, to performances and educational events for all ages. The academy's museum houses one of the world's most significant collections of musical instruments and artefacts, including stringed instruments by Stradivari , Guarneri , and members of
7857-451: The years he gave over forty concerts at this venue, and amongst those who took part were the violinists Henri Vieuxtemps and Heinrich Ernst , the pianists Stephen Heller , Ignaz Moscheles and Clara Schumann, and the cellist Carlo Piatti (for whom Bennett wrote his Sonata Duo); composers represented included—apart from Bennett's favourite classical masters and Mendelssohn— Domenico Scarlatti , Fanny Mendelssohn and Schumann. As well as
7954-681: Was Clara Schumann, wife of his old friend. It was her first appearance in England. Bennett's stewardship of the Philharmonic Society orchestra was not entirely happy, and the historian of the orchestra, Cyril Ehrlich, notes "a sense of drift and decline". Many leading members of the orchestra were also in the orchestra of the Italian Opera House in London (and therefore partisans of the displaced Costa), and, in addition, Bennett proved unable to resolve personal animosities amongst his leading players. Costa took to arranging schedules for his musicians which made rehearsals (and sometimes performances) for
8051-446: Was Goldschmidt's wife, wrote that Bennett "is certainly the only man in England who ought to raise that institution from its present decay". Bennett was to find that heading a leading music college was incompatible with a career as a composer. The post of Principal was traditionally not arduous. He was contractually required to attend for only six hours a week, teaching composition and arranging class-lists. But Bennett had not only to run
8148-564: Was Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 until 1875. In 1866 he became Principal of the RAM, rescuing it from closure, and remained in this position until his death. He was knighted in 1871. He died in London in 1875 and was buried in Westminster Abbey . Bennett had a significant influence on English music, not solely as a composer but also as a teacher, as a promoter of standards of musical education and as an important figure in London concert life. In recent years, appreciation of Bennett's compositions has been rekindled and
8245-469: Was a conductor, composer and piano teacher; he named his son after his friend William Sterndale, some of whose poems the elder Bennett had set to music. His mother died in 1818, aged 27, and his father, after remarrying, died in 1819. Thus orphaned at the age of three, Bennett was brought up in Cambridge by his paternal grandfather, John Bennett, from whom he received his first musical education. John Bennett
8342-602: Was a founder of the journal The Musical Examiner , and remained its editor (after it was merged with the Musical World ) until his death. In 1846 he became principal music critic of The Times , where he remained until 1879, exercising substantial influence over British musical taste. He also wrote for other journals, including the Pall Mall Gazette and the Saturday Review . Davison's tastes were conservative and he
8439-425: Was a freelance teacher, conductor and concert organiser; a very occasional pianist and a still more occasional composer." Clara Schumann noted that Bennett spent too much time giving private lessons to keep up with changing trends in music: "His only chance of learning new music is in the carriage on the way from one lesson to another." Among his pupils was the composer Alice Mary Smith . From 1842, Bennett had been
8536-513: Was a professional bass , who sang as a lay clerk in the choirs of King's , St John's and Trinity colleges. The young Bennett entered the choir of King's College Chapel in February 1824 where he remained for two years. In 1826, at the age of ten, he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), which had been founded in 1822. The examiners were so impressed by the child's talent that they waived all fees for his tuition and board. Bennett
8633-429: Was a pupil at the RAM for the next ten years. At his grandfather's wish his principal instrumental studies were at first as a violinist, under Paolo Spagnoletti and later Antonio James Oury. He also studied the piano under W. H. Holmes , and after five years, with his grandfather's agreement, he took the piano as his principal study. He was a shy youth and was diffident about his skill in composition, which he studied under
8730-602: Was a strong advocate of the work of Felix Mendelssohn , Louis Spohr and William Sterndale Bennett , the latter of whom he had befriended at the Royal Academy. He joined Bennett on his first visit to Germany in 1836 where they met Mendelssohn, who had admired Bennett's work in London. Conversely Davison was strongly against the innovations of the composers of the New German School , including Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner , and even towards more conventional composers such as Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann , although he
8827-409: Was an advocate of the work (and conducting) of Hector Berlioz , whom he described as "a great musical thinker" and who dedicated to him his overture Le Corsaire (op. 21, H101) After the first performance in England of Robert Schumann 's Paradise and the Peri he wrote: "Robert Schumann has had his innings, and been bowled out—like Richard Wagner. Paradise and the Peri has gone to the tomb of
8924-447: Was given in June 1833. The critic of The Harmonicon wrote of this concert: [T]he most complete and gratifying performance was that of young Bennett, whose composition would have conferred honour on any established master, and his execution of it was really surprising, not merely for its correctness and brilliancy, but for the feeling he manifested, which, if he proceed as he has begun, must in
9021-543: Was given with a new organization, the Orchestral Union, and followed a snub from Costa, who had refused to conduct the pianist Arabella Goddard (Davison's wife) in Bennett's Third Concerto at the Philharmonic Society. In the same year Bennett declined an invitation to become the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra . He was greatly tempted by the offer, but felt it his duty to remain in England, as
9118-519: Was implicitly downgraded." In 1849, Bennett became the founding president of the Bach Society in London, whose early members included Sir George Smart , John Pyke Hullah , William Horsley , Potter and Davison. Under his direction the Society gave the first English performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion on 6 April 1854. Further performances of the Passion were given by the Society in 1858 and 1862,
9215-551: Was not of Jewish descent) his name was included in the Nazi handbook Lexikon der Juden in der Musik (Dictionary of Jews in Music) , published in 1940. Davison wrote orchestral works, one of which, an overture, was played at a concert of the Society of British Musicians . He also wrote and arranged pianoforte music for Bohn's Harmonist , and composed songs, among them settings of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley . The only book he published
9312-488: Was reunited with old friends including Ferdinand David, and his Op. 43 Symphony was performed. In 1866, Charles Lucas , the Principal of the RAM, announced his retirement. The position was first offered to Costa, who demanded a higher salary than the directors of the RAM could contemplate, and then to Otto Goldschmidt , who was then professor of piano at the RAM. He declined and urged the directors to appoint Bennett. Lind, who
9409-552: Was the German composer Felix Mendelssohn , who invited him to Leipzig . There Bennett became friendly with Robert Schumann , who shared Mendelssohn's admiration for his compositions. Bennett spent three winters composing and performing in Leipzig. In 1837 Bennett began to teach at the RAM, with which he was associated for most of the rest of his life. For twenty years he taught there, later also teaching at Queen's College, London . Among his pupils during this period were Arthur Sullivan , Hubert Parry , and Tobias Matthay . Throughout
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