Richard Rodney Bennett: Songs Before Sleep
Sophie Daneman (soprano) & Iain Burnside (piano), Roderick Williams (baritone) & Iain Burnside (piano), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano) & Iain Burnside (piano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor) & Oliver Coates (cello)
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2011, Finalist - Solo Vocal
[Bennett] creates a campy 1920s-ish idiom, well captured by the versatile Iain Burnside...Benjamin Hulett, with Oliver Coates, sings with commendably Pearsian fervour...Susan Bickley adds mezzo...
Richard Rodney Bennett: Songs Before Sleep
Sophie Daneman (soprano) & Iain Burnside (piano), Roderick Williams (baritone) & Iain Burnside (piano), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano) & Iain Burnside (piano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor) & Oliver Coates (cello)
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Gramophone Awards, 2011, Finalist - Solo Vocal
[Bennett] creates a campy 1920s-ish idiom, well captured by the versatile Iain Burnside...Benjamin Hulett, with Oliver Coates, sings with commendably Pearsian fervour...Susan Bickley adds mezzo...
About
Bennett is renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works.
His film music includes scores for Far from the Madding Crowd, Murder on the Orient Express and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Richard Rodney Bennett has long had a private passion for making collages (and knitting!) and the cover image on this CD is one of his creations, currently displayed at an exhibition of his work in Chelsea.
Born in Broadstairs, Kent, in 1936, he has lived in New York City since 1979. Richard Rodney Bennett received a CBE in 1977, and was knighted in 1998. Bennett studied with Pierre Boulez in Paris.
This new recording spans five decades of Bennett’s song-writing, cherry-picking some of his most accessible and lyrical pieces, from the melodic Songs Before Sleep, performed by Roderick Williams, to the 1920s dance rhythms of A History of the Thé Dansant, the dramatic and rarely-performed Tom O'Bedlam's Song for tenor and cello (written for Peter Pears) and the enchanting A Garland for Marjory Fleming.
A wonderful recording, stunningly performed by a collection of internationally acclaimed soloists.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
October 2010
[Bennett] creates a campy 1920s-ish idiom, well captured by the versatile Iain Burnside...Benjamin Hulett, with Oliver Coates, sings with commendably Pearsian fervour...Susan Bickley adds mezzo bite to Dream-Songs, while Roderick Williams infuses Songs before Sleep with just the right dark warmth.
December 2010
What a treat this is! Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, 74 years young, continues to delight audiences the world over...he also possesses a very special gift for word-setting, if this addictive anthology is anything to go by...Performances throughout are without blemish - and a special word of praise for the supple and intuitive accompaniments by Iain Burnside.
16th September 2010
Performances are uniformly excellent; this is a beautifully judged and planned disc, an undiluted pleasure.
