Claire Martin and Richard Rodney Bennett will tour across the UK in 2011. A concert including Richard’s music, followed by a Late Night Jazz event will take place on Richard’s birthday at the Wigmore Hall in London.
The Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, London
March 23
6.00pm:
Composers in Focus: Anthony Burton in conversation with composers of the evening concert
7.00pm:
Nash Inventions
Instrumentation: soprano, tenor, piano, flute, horn, string quartet, double bass, harp
Debussy: Syrinx for solo flute
Richard Rodney Bennett: Sonata after Syrinx for flute, viola and harp
Simon Holt: The Torturer's Horse for string sextet (World Premiere; commissioned by the Nash Ensemble with funds provided by Wigmore Hall and PRS for Music Foundation)
Michael Berkeley: New work for soprano and ensemble (World Premiere; commissioned by the Nash Ensemble)
David Matthews: Horn Quintet (World Premiere; commissioned by the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Nash Ensemble)
Mark-Anthony Turnage: A Constant Obsession for tenor and eight players
with Claire Booth (soprano), Mark Padmore (tenor), Philippa Davies (flute), Richard Watkins (horn), Lucy Wakeford (harp), Lionel Friend (conductor)
10.00pm LATE NIGHT JAZZ EVENT TO CELEBRATE RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT’S 75TH BIRTHDAY
Arrangements by Richard Rodney Bennett from the Great American Songbook - including songs by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Rodgers and Hart and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
with Richard Rodney Bennett (piano/arranger), Claire Martin (vocals), Nigel Hitchcock (alto saxophone), Jeremy Brown (double bass), Mark Skelton (drums), Members of the Nash Ensemble, John Wilson (conductor)
Click here to book tickets via the Wigmore Hall online box office
Richard Rodney Bennett, as evidenced in the enormous diversity of his activities, can be acknowledged as one of the most complete musician of recent times. Not only does he have a remarkable 300 commissioned concert works to his name, establishing him among the leading British twentieth-century composers, but he has also contrived to lead several completely different musical lives. For some, he is loved for his jazz and jazz-influnced music, as epitomised in his remarkable Concerto for Stan Getz and concert works for Cleo Laine. Others remember him as a concert pianist with a special enthusiasm for pioneering contemporary music, his partnerships with Susan Bradshaw, Jane Manning and Barry Tuckwell being particularly notable. He also has over 70 film and television scores to his credit, classic titles ranging from Murder on the Orient Express and Far From the Madding Crowd to Equus and Four Weddings and a Funeral . For cabaret and jazz club devotees, he is something completely different: one of the finest and most knowledgeable of all exponents of the Great American Songbook, a much-in-demand singer and accompanist over the past thirty-five years, and, as such, the stage partner of some of the most glamorous performers in the business. This, then, is a book about a uniquely gifted musician. It is also a study of a most engaging personality and a fascinatingly complex human being.
Anthony Meredith has been a widely published writer for some twenty-five years. He is a member of MCC, a Friend of Covent Garden and Northern Ballet. His co-researcher, Paul Harris, is a leading music educationalist, well-known for his seminars, workshops and masterclasses, with over 500 books to his name. Meredith and Harris have previously collaborated on the highly praised biographies of Malcolm Arnold and Malcolm Williamson.
Richard Rodney Bennett – The Complete Musician will be available shortly to purchase from www.musicroom.com
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