Biography
From an early age Bennett revealed striking musical gifts, nurtured by his mother, herself a Holst pupil and an accomplished pianist and composer. By sixteen he was already producing twelve-tone pieces, a method still scarcely known within Britain’s musical circles. A scholarship brought him to the RAM, where his teachers were Berkeley and Ferguson. While there, several compositions received London performances, among them the cantata A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day and two string quartets. These scores revealed a sensitive command of line and texture, qualities that would mark his mature output. In 1957 another scholarship allowed him to study with Boulez in Paris. Although he later called the period one of “violent stylistic change,” the contact with Boulez steered him back to serial procedures. During the 1960s he turned toward jazz, producing polished works such as Jazz Calender and Jazz Pastoral and permitting jazz inflections to enter his concert music. Teaching posts followed at the RCM and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Richard Rodney Bennett died in New York City on December 24, 2012, at the age of 76.
Albums
