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Context, Form and Style in Sterndale Bennett’s Piano Concertos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2016
Abstract
A concert pianist in his own right and a prodigious youth, Sterndale Bennett composed his five complete piano concertos at the beginning of his career. Although Mozart is often cited as a major influence on Bennett’s musical style, and Bennett was a keen executant of Mozart’s piano concertos throughout his career as a virtuoso (at a time when a performing tradition of Mozart’s concertos was still establishing itself), of equal or even greater impact on Bennett’s style of concerto was the ‘London School’ of pianists, among them Field, Hummel, Potter (Bennett’s teacher), Cramer and Moscheles whose first-movement structural paradigms of ritornello and sonata are especially evident in the corresponding movements of the first four of Bennett’s concertos. Structural and stylistic factors are also discussed in relation to the more romantically inclined slow movements (which includes an examination of the programmatic movement of the Third Concerto in C minor Op. 9, so enthusiastically reviewed by Schumann in Leipzig, and the unpublished ‘Adagio in G minor’) as well as the ‘shared sonata’ schemes of the finales in which the influence of Mendelssohn features more conspicuously. Finally, the stylistic amalgam of Bennett’s concertos, in particular the frequently performed Fourth Concerto in F minor Op. 19 and the unpublished Konzert-Stück in A minor, is considered within the larger context of the first half of the nineteenth century with particular reference to the tensions that existed between the composer’s classical instincts and the desire to experiment with freer Romantic forms.
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References
1 His final performance was for the ‘Orchestral Union’ at which he played the Concerto Op. 19 ( Sterndale Bennett, J. R., The Life of William Sterndale Bennett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907), 225 Google Scholar).
2 Bennett, W. S., Lecture on ‘Mozart’, Arts School, Cambridge, 4 March 1871, see N. Temperley, with Y. Yang (eds), Lectures on Musical Life: William Sterndale Bennett (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), 157–158 Google Scholar.
3 Bennett, Lecture on ‘Mozart’, 158.
4 In this instance Bennett cited the Adagio of the String Quintet in G minor K. 516 and the Adagio in B minor for piano K. 540.
5 Bennett, Lecture on ‘Mozart’, 160.
6 Bennett, Lecture on ‘Mozart’, 158n.
7 See Williamson, R., William Sterndale Bennett: A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 447 Google Scholar. Bennett also attempted and canon 2 in 1 on the same theme (Williamson 1996, 313–314).
8 Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 22–26.
9 See Temperley, N., ‘William Sterndale Bennett: Three Symphonies’, in The Symphony 1720–1840, ed. N. Temperley and B. S. Brook (ed.-in-chief) (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1982), xix Google Scholar.
10 Temperley, ‘Three Symphonies’, 27–28.
11 Temperley, ‘Three Symphonies’, 24.
12 Temperley, ‘Three Symphonies’, 187. Temperley has also suggested that Mozart’s K. 466 was a potent influence in the syncopations of the development of Bennett’s Second Symphony which also shared the same key (D minor) completed in February 1833 (Temperley, ‘Three Symphonies’, xiv).
13 Temperley and Yang, Lectures on Musical Life, 142.
14 Macdonald, C., ‘Mozart’s Piano Concertos and the Romantic Generation’, in Historical Musicology: Sources, Methods, Interpretations, ed. S. A. Crist and R. M. Marvin (Rochester: University of Rochester, 2004), 304ff Google Scholar. See also Horton, J., ‘Formal Type and Formal Function in the Postclassical Piano Concerto‘, in Formal Functions in Perspective: Essays on Musical Form from Haydn to Adorno, ed. Steven Vande Moortele, Julie Pedneault-Deslauriers and Martin Pedneault-Deslauriers (Rochester: Nathan University of Rochester Press, 2015), 79–80 Google Scholar.
15 After he had returned from his continental travels in Austria and Italy, Potter performed several of Mozart’s concertos in London, notably in E flat (probably K. 482 on 20 March 1820), in C major K. 467 (19 June 1820), in C major K. 503 (12 March 1821) and in D minor K. 466 (18 June 1821). What is more, while Potter was keen to promote the concertos of Beethoven, Mozart continued to be part of his repertoire which included performances of K. 453 in G major (the English premiere, on 10 May 1831), K. 488 in A major (2 June 1837), K. 466 (11 June 1838), K. 456 in B flat major (15 June 1840), K. 451 in D major (7 June 1841), K. 491 (12 June 1843) and K. 481 (13 June 1844). I am grateful for this information from the appendices of Therese Ellsworth’s thesis ‘The Piano Concerto in London Concert Life between 1801 and 1850’, University of Cincinnati, 1991). Potter’s devotion to Mozart’s concertos was also reiterated by Macfarren, another of Potter’s pupils (see Banister, H. C., George Alexander Macfarren: His Life, Works and Influence (London: George Bell & Sons, 1891), 22–23 Google Scholar).
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23 Passing allusion to this fact was made by Frederic Corder in his article ‘W. Sterndale Bennett and His Music’ as early as 1916 (The Musical Times, lvii (May 1916), 233) where the formal influence on Bennett’s First Concerto was credited to Hummel and Dussek; Bush also briefly mentions the ‘London’ influence in ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’ (The Musical Times, cxxvii (June 1986), 322) as the basis of ‘form and technique’ though does not expand upon the fact.
24 The Second Concerto was dedicated to Potter, the Third to Cramer and the Fourth to Moscheles. The Caprice in E major was dedicated to Louise Dulcken.
25 There are some exceptions to this rule which can be seen in some of Hummel’s concertos such as the Concerto Op. 113 in A flat where the second subject is also stated in the tonic; nevertheless, Hummel’s rhetorical manner of presenting these themes in their more extended forms still resembles the ‘London’ form more than the more telescoped ritornellos of Mozart’s works (see also n. 26).
26 There are one or two exceptions to this rule in Mozart as can be seen in the ritornello of Concerto No. 14 in E flat K. 449 where the second subject is clearly presented in the dominant key. This was also a work Bennett performed as soloist in 1838 for the Society of British Musicians, having made a score from the orchestral parts (see Sterndale Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 69).
27 See Horton, ‘Formal Type and Formal Function’, 78–79.
28 Stanford, C. V., ‘William Sterndale Bennett 1816–1875’, The Musical Quarterly 2/4 (October 1916), 632 Google Scholar.
29 Temperley, ‘Three Symphonies’, 143.
30 Bennett’s own practical exposure as a concert pianist to the ‘London’ style of concerto is interesting in that the two concertos he performed at the RAM in public by Dussek (the Concerto in B flat – not specified, but probably the Concerto in B flat Op. 40 ‘Military’) on 6 September 1828 and Hummel (the Concerto in A flat Op. 113) on 21 December 1831 both exhibit the presentation of the first and second subjects in the tonic in the ritornello. These ritornellos nevertheless reveal the same expansive properties as those that modulate.
31 Bush, ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’, 322.
32 Williamson, A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue, 336. J. R. Sterndale Bennett has argued that this overture was intended as the first movement of a lost Third Symphony which, again, would have been couched in D minor.
33 Just as there was a co-relation between the keys of Bennett’s First Concerto and Potter’s Second Concerto, Potter’s Third Concerto, performed in London only three days before the premiere of Bennett’s Second Concerto at the RAM, also shares the same key of E flat.
34 Walker, E., A History of Music in England (London: Oxford University Press, 1907), 278 Google Scholar.
35 This concerto is often referred to, somewhat confusingly, as the Concerto No. 5, even though it was completed two years before the published Fourth Concerto.
36 M. Outhwaite, ‘The Unpublished Piano Concerto in F minor by William Sterndale Bennett 1816–1875’ (MMus dissertation, University of Reading, 1990); Williamson, A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue, 84. Bennett’s fondness for this key is also evident from the Piano Sonata in F minor Op. 13, completed in March 1837 and intended as a wedding present for Mendelssohn.
37 Horton, J., ‘John Field and the Alternative History of Concerto First-Movement Form’, Music & Letters 92/1 (2011), 61 Google Scholar.
38 It is perhaps significant that Field, short of money and in need of medical assistance, had returned to London in 1832 and played his Fourth Concerto at the Philharmonic Society on 27 February 1832. Only two months before, Field had witnessed Bennett’s performance of Hummel’s Concerto in A flat at the RAM at which he had proclaimed ‘That little fellow knows what he’s about’ (Sterndale Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 22).
39 Bush, ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’, 322.
40 The paradigm of the sustained melody and pizzicato strings may well have been gleaned from the example of the second subject of Mendelssohn’s First Symphony in C minor which was performed twice in May and June 1829 during the composer’s first visit to London.
41 Cope, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s G minor Adagio’, 373.
42 See Ritter, F. R. (ed.), Music and Musicians: Essays and Criticisms by Robert Schumann (London: William Reeves, 1891), 213–214 Google Scholar.
43 Bush, ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’, 323.
44 Williamson, A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue, 30. Given that Schumann described Bennett’s slow movement as a ‘Romance in G minor’ and that the manuscript of Bennett’s Adagio bears no such title, it seems more likely that Schumann heard the Romance as published in 1836.
45 Bush, ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’, 323
46 Sterndale Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 42.
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49 Bennett was to carry this aspect of his composition much further in the later Symphony in G minor Op. 43 of 1864 where all five movements are linked by transitional passages.
50 Temperley and Yang, Lectures on Musical Life, 143.
51 Temperley and Yang, Lectures on Musical Life, 143.
52 Bush, ‘Sterndale Bennett and the Orchestra’, 323.
53 Williamson, A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue, 101. I have included discussion of the Capriccio here since, to all intents and purposes, it has all the properties of a concerto movement.
54 Sterndale Bennett, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 30.
55 O’Leary, ‘A Brief Review of His Life and Works’, 125.
56 Cooke, G., ‘Some Recollections of Sir Sterndale Bennett DCL by Grattan Cooke his Fellow Student at the Royal Academy of Music’ (unpublished MS); Williamson, A Descriptive Thematic Catalogue, 19 Google Scholar.
57 Ritter, Music and Musicians, 212–213.
58 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 115ff.
59 Bennett, Sterndale, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 127–128 Google Scholar.
60 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 118.
61 Bennett, Sterndale, The Life of William Sterndale Bennett, 150 Google Scholar.
62 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 121.
63 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 121.
64 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 121.
65 Temperley and Yang, Lectures on Musical Life: William Sterndale Bennett, 142.
66 Temperley and Yang, Lectures on Musical Life: William Sterndale Bennett, 143.
67 Williamson, ‘Sterndale Bennett’s Lost Piano Concerto’, 126.
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69 Stanford, ‘William Sterndale Bennett 18163875’, 631–632.