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The British Isles and Beyond: The Performance of Instrumental Music by William Sterndale Bennett during the Long Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2016
Abstract
Bennett wrote in a variety of instrumental and vocal genres. Some of his most popular pieces during his lifetime comprise anthems, oratorios and cantatas. But his enduring legacy resides with his instrumental output, in particular works that include a pianist. This article begins with an examination of performances that occurred in Britain and in Germany, where Bennett’s close associations with the Mendelssohn circle provided him with substantial encouragement during his formative years. Advances in transportation and increasing globalization led touring artists to travel farther to cities worldwide, bringing with them Bennett repertoire to foreign shores. George Loder, for example, conducted the US premiere of The Wood Nymphs overture at the New York Philharmonic in 1848. Arabella Goddard gave an early American performance of the Piano Sonata Op. 46 (Die Jungfrau von Orleans) in 1875, just two years after its premiere in London. In addition, émigrés from Britain and Germany, especially to Australia, New Zealand and America, contributed to the movement of British music across the globe. In both small towns and large cities, from Melbourne to Auckland, San Francisco to Boston, audiences heard Bennett compositions. In tracing performances of Bennett’s instrumental music before the First World War in both his own country and selected areas outside the British Isles, this research contributes to our understanding of developments in modern concert life as well as the transmission of British music within the Empire and beyond.
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- Research Article
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- © Cambridge University Press 2016
References
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3 Williamson, Rosemary, William Sterndale Bennett: A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)Google Scholar. Williamson documents performances during Bennett’s lifetime and those after his death only if a first performance or a particularly important one. The present research makes some pre-1875 additions then extends the inventory to 1914.
4 The Musical World [MW] 58 (18 September 1880), 592.
5 Cusins played the concerto at a PS concert on 12 April 1858 and at Mrs Lamborn Cock’s concert at St James’s Hall on 11 April 1883. He succeeded Bennett as conductor of the PS in 1867 after which time he led the orchestra in the concerto three times, each featuring Arabella Goddard as soloist (1868, 1871, 1878).
6 Schumann and Bennett had met in 1836 during his first visit to Germany, before her marriage to Robert Schumann. They remained lifelong friends, and it was he who introduced her to London audiences in 1856.
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14 For Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts, see Catalogue of Works Performed at the Monday Popular Concerts during Thirty-four Seasons (London: Chappell, [1892]).
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16 The Musical Times 22 (1 March 1880), 173.
17 MW 51 (14 June 1873), 398; The Musical Standard 5 (19 July 1873), 43.
18 MW 55 (3 February 1877), 89 and (17 March 1877), 201.
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21 Franklin Taylor, Lindsay Sloper, E. H. Thorne, Walter Macfarren, Frank Spinney, A. Gilbert, Mrs R. Blagrove, Emily Lawrence, Mrs Goldsmith, Arabella Goddard and Dora Bright.
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24 Von Bülow played the sonata again at a Wednesday Popular Concert in Liverpool on 17 December 1873. The Musical Times 16 (1 January 1874), 367.
25 The Musical Times 34 (1 March 1892), 151.
26 Three Impromptus on 3 January 1884 with Emanuel Aguilar, see MW 62 (12 January 1884), 26–27. Piano Sonata in F before 16 May in 1857 with Alexandre Billet, see MW 35 (16 May 1857), 308.
27 I am grateful to Nic Munday at the ABRSM for this information. Menuetto Espressivo is referred to in the ABRSM syllabus by its opus number in a Kistner publication [1856] but is WO 53 in Williamson, Catalogue, 392–393.
28 Royal College of Music, London, Monday Popular Concert programme (15 February 1875), 867, quoting The Pall Mall Gazette.
29 Bennett travelled to the Niederrheinisches Musikfest at Düsseldorf with J. W. Davison and Karl Klingemann. In a letter to Thomas Attwood, Mendelssohn wrote that he ‘was quite delighted, and so were all my musical friends’ with Bennett’s performance. Williamson, Catalogue, 42.
30 Neue Zeitschrift für Musik [NZfM] 45/17 (17 October 1856), 177. It was reported as Concerto No. 3 in F minor, thus either No. 3 in C minor or No. 4 in F minor.
31 MW 43 (4 February 1865), 66–67.
32 On 6 April 1874. Musikalisches Wochenblatt 5/22 (29 May 1874), 270.
33 Concert date unspecified. Musikalisches Wochenblatt 11/2 (2 January 1880), 19.
34 On 28 April 1884. NZfM 80/23 (30 May 1884), 260.
35 On 26 May 1893. The Musical Times 35 (1 July 1893), 412.
36 On 14 March 1852. NZfM 36/12 (19 March 1852), 136.
37 Concert date unspecified. Musikalisches Wochenblatt 5/52 (25 December 1874), 642.
38 On 28 January 1881. NZfM 77/4 (21 January 1881), 44.
39 On 28 April 1884, probably Two Characteristic Studies Op. 29 No. 2. NZfM 80/23 (30 May 1884), 260.
40 On 26 May 1893. The Musical Times 35 (1 July 1893), 412.
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42 On 23 March 1875. NZfM 71/14 (2 April 1875), 142.
43 Cologne concert date, 17 January 1871. See Musikalisches Wochenblatt 49/3 (17 January 1871), 76. Regarding the Bremen performance, see Pettler, Pamela Suskind ‘Performers & Instruments: Clara Schumann’s Recitals, 1832–50’, 19th-Century Music 4/1 (Summer 1980), 70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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45 Rheinische Musik-Zeitung 1/22 (30 November 1850), 175.
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53 Launceston Examiner (29 December 1860).
54 New Zealand Herald (11 October 1869). Winter must have been well connected for her concert was ‘under the patronage’ of Sir George Bowen, the colonial governor, and Lady Bowen.
55 Auckland Star (10 December 1895). Midgley’s teacher had been her brother, Samuel Midgley, the Leipzig Conservatory student who had performed Bennett’s Fourth Piano Concerto there in 1874.
56 Sydney Morning Herald (26 September 1866). Anderson’s brief career ended with his death at age twenty-eight in 1876.
57 Express and Telegraph (Adelaide) (12 March 1904).
58 These comprised the leaders of the string sections, first-desk wind players, a harpist and a quartet of horns. See Kenneth Hince, ‘Cowen, Sir Frederic Hymen (1852–1935)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cowen-sir-frederic-hymen-3272/text4959, accessed 17 February 2016. See also Frederick H. Cowen, My Art and My Friends (London: E. Arnold, 1913), 187–217.
59 Official Record of the Centennial International Exhibition Melbourne: 1888–1889 (Melbourne: Sands & McDougall, 1890), 263. Total attendance at the concerts reached 467,299. See Official Record, 270.
60 Argus (27 February 1882).
61 Argus (26 May 1891); Punch (23 October 1902).
62 Argus (20 November 1879).
63 The Age (27 November 1879).
64 The Age (18 September 1884). Tasca, wife of Alfred Plumpton, died in 1902 after many years as a musician in Melbourne. See The Australasian (12 July 1902).
65 Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (13 November 1880); Sydney Morning Herald (24 November 1880).
66 Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (6 August 1892) and (30 July 1892).
67 Szuster, Julja, ‘George Loder’s Contribution to Musical Life in Colonial Australia’, in Musicians of Bath and Beyond: Edward Loder (1809–1865) and His Family, ed. Nicholas Temperley (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2016), 158 Google Scholar. Loder was Anna Bishop’s musical director, a conductor for William Lyster’s touring opera company, and a duo partner with his wife, singer Emma Neville.
68 Evening Journal (20 October 1881).
69 Brisbane Courier (16 March 1891).
70 The Mercury (11 January 1895).
71 I am grateful to Matthew Lorenzon at the Australian Music Examinations Board office in Melbourne for making available the first printed syllabus of the precursor to the AMEB. See The Universities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania and Queensland Syllabus of Public Examinations in Music (Adelaide: Vardon, 1912), 34.
72 Argus (18 February 1881).
73 For example, W. H. Jude played ‘Venetian Gondola Song’ in Wellington. See Evening Post (13 September 1892). Maughan Barnes played ‘On the Adriatic’ in Nelson. See Evening Post (15 August 1896).
74 Auckland Star (24 September 1889) and (28 September 1889).
75 Evening Post (9 December 1893); New Zealand Herald (21 July 1896).
76 Evening Star (25 September 1895); Wanganui Herald (27 September 1898); Wanganui Chronicle (5 August 1908).
77 Otago Witness (24 June 1908).
78 Performed in each case in Wellington. See Evening Post (22 December 1891), (25 August 1896) and (28 October 1899); Wairarapa Age (19 December 1914).
79 Both times at Parker concerts. See Evening Post (26 August 1897) and New Zealand Graphic (11 September 1897).
80 Auckland Star (18 November 1901).
81 Evening Post (24 November 1896).
82 The Musical Times 27/3 (1 March 1885), 127.
83 See archives.nyphil.org for a complete run of NYPS programmes.
84 New York Herald (3 March 1845).
85 For more information on Loder in America, see Andrew Clarke, ‘Bath and Its Musical Diaspora, 1788–1868: Three Case Studies’ (MPhil dissertation, University of Bristol, 2011). See also Loder], [George, ‘Recollections of California and Australia (By a Musician)’, MW 36 (1858)Google Scholar, serialized between 199 and 564.
86 Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (15 March 1856).
87 For a discussion comparing London and Birmingham with New York and Boston during the 1840s and 1850s, see Weber, William, ‘Orchestral Programs in Boston, 1842–55, in European Perspective’, in American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century, ed. John Spitzer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 375–394 Google Scholar.
88 http://cdm15982.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/PROG/id/495007 accessed 15 December 2015. For a full run of BSO programmes, see archives.bso.org.
89 Lawrence, Vera Brodsky, Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong, I (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 404 Google Scholar. Bristow also had British connections. His father was an English émigré and he himself had studied harmony with George Macfarren in London.
90 On 27 February 1893 at the Pianoforte Trio Club, New York. The Musical Yearbook of the United States 10, ed. George H. Wilson and Calvin B. Cady (Chicago: Clayton F. Summy, 1893), 98–99.
91 New York Times (21 March 1885).
92 Johnson, Harold Earle, First Performances in America to 1900 (Detroit: Published for the College Music Society by Information Coordinators, 1979), 58 Google Scholar.
93 Dwight’s Journal of Music [DJM] 30/25 (25 February 1871), 406.
94 DJM 33/16 (15 November 1873), 126.
95 DJM 28/19 (5 December 1868), 358–359.
96 DJM 14/23 (5 March 1859), 390.
97 DJM 33/22 (7 February 1874), 174.
98 NZfM 75/16 (11 April 1879), 165. Adolphe Christian, pianist; Carl Retter, conductor.
99 The North American (Philadelphia) (28 November 1892).
100 The Sun (Baltimore) (9 March 1889); Atlanta Constitution (22 September 1910).
101 San Francisco Call (6 November 1904).
102 Inter Ocean (16 March 1878), (6 March 1878), (23 March 1878) and (4 May 1878); The North American (15 October 1894); San Francisco Call (12 December 1904).
103 The Morning Call (San Francisco) (15 August 1875).
104 Boston Daily Advertiser (2 November 1875).
105 Boston Daily Advertiser (15 January 1878).