Richard Rodney Bennett

Richard Rodney Bennett was one of the most versatile musicians of our time: a prolific and highly respected composer of operas, a ballet, and orchestral, vocal, chamber and educational music; an accomplished pianist in contemporary music; a jazz pianist and composer; even a solo cabaret performer. And all this in addition to his parallel career as a composer of film scores, which began when he was nineteen, and won him international fame and numerous awards.

Born in 1936 in Broadstairs, in south-east England, Bennett began composing as a child, and from the age of eleven had informal consultations with the pioneering modernist (and expert film composer) Elisabeth Lutyens. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson, and in Paris with Pierre Boulez. The music which he composed after his return to Britain, although hardly adhering to the Boulezian avant-garde, was in a mainstream modern idiom employing serial techniques. But just as this modernist background has given underlying coherence to his film scores, so too in recent years his experience in popular idioms refreshed the language of his concert works. A resident of New York since 1979, Bennett remained a British citizen, and was knighted in 1998. He died in December 2012.

 

Biography

Richard Rodney Bennett was one of the most versatile musicians of our time: a prolific and highly respected composer of operas, a ballet, and orchestral, vocal, chamber and educational music; an accomplished pianist in contemporary music; a jazz pianist and composer; even a solo cabaret performer. And all this in addition to his parallel career as a composer of film scores, which began when he was nineteen, and won him international fame and numerous awards.

Born in 1936 in Broadstairs, in south-east England, Bennett began composing as a child, and from the age of eleven had informal consultations with the pioneering modernist (and expert film composer) Elisabeth Lutyens. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson, and in Paris with Pierre Boulez. The music which he composed after his return to Britain, although hardly adhering to the Boulezian avant-garde, was in a mainstream modern idiom employing serial techniques. But just as this modernist background has given underlying coherence to his film scores, so too in recent years his experience in popular idioms refreshed the language of his concert works. A resident of New York since 1979, Bennett remained a British citizen, and was knighted in 1998. He died in December 2012.

 

Recordings by this composer

Recordings
Life Studies - Spells Cover

Life Studies - Spells

NMC Recordings

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Songs Before Sleep

NMC Recordings

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Compilations with this composer

Compilations
Spectrum CD Cover

Spectrum

NMC Recordings

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New Music for Brass Band cover

New Music for Brass Band

NMC Recordings

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Prime Cuts

Prime Cuts

NMC Recordings

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Love from a Stranger cover

Love from a Stranger: Britten - Gerhard - Lutyens - Bennett

NMC Recordings

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Variations for Judith

Variations for Judith

NMC Recordings

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New Music Collection - Choral cover

New Music Collections - Choral

NMC Recordings

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New Music Collections Orchestral

New Music Collections - Orchestral

NMC Recordings

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New Music Collections - Piano

New Music Collections - Piano

NMC Recordings

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External Links

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