Tuesday, 1 March 2016
1.10pm, West Road Concert Hall
Instrumental Award Scheme Lunchtime Concert to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Sir William Sterndale Bennett
This concert will be introduced by the composer's great-great-grandson Barry Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 1816 – 1 February 1875)
Orphaned at the age of three, Bennett was brought up in Cambridge by his paternal grandfather, John Bennett, and entered the choir of King's College Chapel in February 1824. 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 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. Throughout 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. 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 was Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 to 1866. In that year 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.
Programme
William Sterndale Bennett String Quartet in G WO17
William Sterndale Bennett Three Romances Op 14 (piano)
William Sterndale Bennett Piano Sextet Op 8, movement 1
Stephanie Childress violin
Ollie Turvey violin
Anna Semple viola
William Clark-Maxwell cello
Joe Cowie double bass
Naomi Woo piano
TICKETS: Admission free
