Exploring Richard Rodney Bennett’s Anniversaries for orchestra (1982) Part 2

Premiere & Reception. Anniversaries was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, on Thursday, 9 September 1982. The evening was an all-British event. The programme began with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s exuberant Overture: The Wasps (1909). This was followed by RRB’s new piece. Janet Baker was the soloist in a triumphant performance of Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, op.37 (1899). After the interval, the Prommers were treated to William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor (1935). The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by James Loughran. Rodney Bennett gave the pre-prom talk at the Royal College of Music, beginning at 6.30 pm. 

 The Times (10 September 1982, p.7) reviewer Nicolas Kenyon gave a detailed report about this concert. Disparagingly, he felt that ‘Mr Bennett’s attractive and unpretentious celebration turned out instead to be a kind of middle-aged person’s guide to the orchestra, in which six busy, jolly sections for full band were interleaved with sections that each featured one section of the orchestra.’  Writing descriptively, he noted that the ‘woodwind flitted, like an echo of a scherzo, the brass brayed in solid chords…the strings dug into passionate chromatic lines and, less successfully, first tuned and then untuned percussion tapped out wartime messages of code.’  The ‘strenuous, upward bounding themes that glued these meditations [a new description of this piece] together were jittery, [and] full of nervous energy.’ Alas, Kenyon felt that the playing was not up to scratch. He considered that ‘James Loughran caught the general ebullience of the piece: a rather rough performance smudged several edges to the brass and covered up so much finely-worked detail…’

Edward Greenfield reviewed the concert for the Manchester Guardian (10 September 1982, p.10).  He notes that Elgar, Walton, and Rodney Bennett ‘were and are orchestral masters to their fingertips.’ Anniversaries ‘is an occasional piece (complete with [a] hint of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ in the final bars) which transcends mere cleverness in a colourful structure of eleven compact sections full of sharply identifiable landmarks.’ On the other hand, Greenfield felt that ‘even in the slow central sections it hardly delves deep, and one would at times welcome the sort of hummable melodies which even the intermittent serialist feels bound to eschew, yet which in such a work as this seem always to be on the point of emerging.’

The Daily Telegraph (10 September 1982, p.13) reviewer Alan Blyth, considered that the music is ‘well built…with a recognisable shape, a constant movement forward, and it is orchestrated in masterly fashion.’ After a brief description of the work’s progress, Blyth concludes his review by admitting this is ‘a likeable, consistently fascinating piece…which should gain its many repetitions if our orchestras are really looking for easily accessible, yet perfectly reputable, worthwhile new music.’ Blyth posed the eternal question: ‘Will…Anniversaries…attain the lasting fame of the other British works performed at last night’s Prom?’ The obvious answer to that is ‘No.’ I imagine that the new Chandos recording (see below) is one of the few opportunities that music lovers have had of hearing this work since 1982. Blyth muses that it is a ‘question probably not many of us will be here to answer.’ On the other hand, he thought that ‘at first hearing it certainly seemed to have the ingredients to stay the course.’  

It is unfortunate that looking at the subsequent performances listed in the publisher’s webpage, there have only been two in the 21^st century - in 2006 and 2016. Both received mixed reviews. Citing a single example, (The Times 30 November 2016, p.9) Geoff Brown thought that ‘the concert's second half proved harder to enjoy. Gamba gave a firecracker jump as he launched the orchestral Anniversaries from 1982, but its terse rhythms and trumpeting exuberance grew hollow over time.’

One review that upset the composer was printed in the Financial Times (10 September 1982, cited Meredith, 2010, p.309). Andrew Clements noted the ‘17 minutes of effortlessly turned orchestral writing.’ So far so good. He then ‘revived the old patronising criticism’ which eventually led to Richard Rodney Bennet leaving England for New York. He stated: ‘Bennett’s sheer facility must generate much admiration: not a note of this score is out of place, not a texture miscalculated. Yet, it constitutes an utterly unmemorable musical argument; within quarter of an hour of ending one remembered only generalities, which had fallen so easily on the ear.’  Richard Rodney Bennett had moved to New York in 1979 due to professional frustration and a sense of being ‘hemmed in’ by his life in Britain. (The Guardian, 26 December 2012, p.4)

Geoffrey Norris, writing in the Musical Times (November 1982, p.769) noted the premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's ‘new piece d'occasion, Anniversaries’ which he felt was ‘vigorously orchestrated (sometimes with recourse to gamelan effects) …’ He also reminded readers that 1982 was the 80^th birthday (29 March) of William Walton, and this was marked at this concert by a ‘fresh, alertly rhythmic performance of the First Symphony.’ Turning to Sea Pictures, Norris noted the ‘marvellous singing…[where] every word and every note counted, and we  were offered - particularly in [Janet Baker’s] encore of  'Where Corals Lie' - music-making of telling  depth of feeling.’

As part of their ongoing (hopefully) survey of Richard Rodney Bennett’s orchestral music, Volume 4 was released in early 2020. See below for details. John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra give an excellent and imaginative account of a diverse selection of the composer’s work. Especially vibrant is the performance of Anniversaries. It is the premiere recording. 

The Gramophone (July 2020, p.32) published its review of the latest volume. Edward Seckerson rehearsed the fact that Anniversaries is effectively a ‘concerto for orchestra’, with a major role for the percussion section. This he feels, is ‘the engine of the works episodic design.’  But as noted above, these ‘episodes’ may not be entirely independent of an overarching formal construct. Seckerson feels that the overall impact of the music is a good example of ‘how effortlessly (or so it seems) that Bennett spins and develops ideas while wielding the largest of orchestras.’ Anniversaries (like the entire album) is an example of ‘precision and virtuosity [applied to] music that sounds like it’s evolving in the playing of it.

Marc Rochester, reviewing this CD for MusicWeb International (May 2020) considered that:

‘We hear the BBC Scottish in great detail in Anniversaries, which takes the form of a concerto for orchestra – or rather a more grown-up version of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide. Each of the five ‘Episodes’ focuses on a particular instrumental group (I am particularly taken by Episode 5 which highlights the brass, and can only admire Bennett’s instinctive and highly idiomatic writing), with each of the six surrounding movements offering some kind of commentary on the basic three-note theme on which the whole work is based’.

Three months later, William Hedley (MusicWeb International August 2020) wrote that:

‘There are several lyrical passages in [this] work that none the less gives the overall impression of great exuberance…[however] there are many beguiling sounds throughout the work…I don’t think many listeners would think of Anniversaries as a tonal work, any more than they might pick up, had they not read the booklet note, the blink-and-you-miss-it reference to ‘Happy Birthday to You’ at the end.’

Bibliography:
Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 1: The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1961)
Craggs, Stewart R., Richard Rodney Bennett: A Bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1990) Meredith, Anthony, Richard Rodney Bennett: The Complete Musician, Omnibus Press, London, 2010)
Bennett, Richard Rodney, Programme Note.
Files of the The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Musical Times, etc

Discography:
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/John Wilson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Anniversaries Troubadour Music, Concerto for piano and orchestra, Aubade, Country Dances, CHANDOS CHSA5244 SACD 2020.
Concluded