Sir Julius Benedict 1802 - 1885

[Wheesht]

Op. 90 is the Legend of St Cecilia, not the 3rd PC as stated in the list by Giles Enders, according to several entries in the old card catalogue of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.

[eschiss1]

Did Hyperion or anyone else record the 3rd concerto? Do we know where the material of the 3rd concerto is?

[Gareth Vaughan]

I did write earlier in this thread that I had looked for it for Hyperion back when they were recording the other concertos, but without success. Doesn't mean it isn't out there somewhere, of course.

[eschiss1]

Ah, sorry!!

[eschiss1]

Hopefully RAM or RCM will get in a big collection as they did only back in 2006 from WS Bennett's family...

[Gareth Vaughan]

One lives in hope.

[pcc]

I've done a great deal more work on Benedict since the last time I posted on this forum, and will be presenting a paper on his first three English-language operas (The Gipsy's Warning, The Brides of Venice, and The Crusaders) at the Music in Nineteenth Century Britain conference at the Open University next month. These three operas were considered lost but I have found scores and parts for all of them in various German archives, where Benedict's operas held the stage for nearly thirty years. I've also discovered a great deal more biographical information about him, some of it quite tragic (he lost his 12-year old son and his 37-year old first wife within a year under horrifying circumstances), and I've located his personal journals as well, which I will examine while I'm in Britain.

To giles.enders list of orchestral works may be added a Concertino for two pianos and orchestra (op. 29), which Benedict and Henry Christian Timm (1811-1892) performed with the New York Philharmonic conducted by George Loder (1816-1868, Edward J. Loder's cousin) on 9 September 1850. That piece is currently lost, as are several of Benedict's other orchestral works, but as things are turning up in unexpected places, who knows?

I know I have occasionally ruffled some feathers here with my championing of Benedict's G minor Symphony (op. 101), and I have to say I don't think his piano concertos are necessarily his best work, but my attention was drawn to a private recording on YouTube of the overture to The Crusaders (1846) which might also startle people on this forum, especially when placed alongside contemporary works like Balfe's The Bohemian Girl (1843; after Balfe conducted the premiere at Drury Lane on 27 November, Benedict handled most performances thereafter as the theatre's resident conductor) and Wallace's Maritana (1845). This was performed on 11 September 1975 at Castle Clinton in lower Manhattan; it was a concert celebrating the 125th anniversary of Jenny Lind's first American appearance at Castle Garden, New York's largest performing space at the time, to an audience of approximately 4500 people. Benedict (who toured with Lind as her accompanist and conductor for the astounding fee of $25,000) led The Crusaders overture at the beginning of the original concert's Part II. (The first piece on the programme was Weber's Oberon overture, possibly used to emphasize Benedict's relationship with Weber.) The orchestra here is the American Symphony under Ainslee Cox, and the parts used at this concert have also vanished; strangely I learned why and how first-hand forty years ago. If there's any question whether Benedict had skill and style at his best, this overture might answer it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQKcUYANDRY&list=RDnQKcUYANDRY&start_radio=1

And I'd still like to know his late violin sonata and string quartet. Nicholas Temperley rather liked them, and Cobbett is not always "right". 

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for posting this important update. It's much appreciated. Oh, and continue to ruffle our feathers, please!

[Martin Eastick]

I am interested in the reference to the Concertino for 2 pianos and orchestra Op29 in pcc's post. I have an early Schott edition (plate no.4874) of a work with this same opus number - piano solo part and instrumental parts for a quartet accompaniment version. As is documented in Nicholas Temperley's notes for the Hyperion CDA67720 (Benedict/Macfarren), I can confirm that my edition consists of what was eventually used as the 1st movement of Benedict's Op89 concerto in E flat, albeit with some fairly minor alterations! I also presume that Giles' listing's reference to a Concertino Op19 is perhaps a mere typing error in respect of the opus number. Therefore it would seem that perhaps Benedict made an arrangement of what was published as his Op29 for TWO pianos and orchestra - presumably not published and at present to be considered lost! Unless, of course, there is yet ANOTHER work to be located, hopefully?

[pcc]

It's an interesting predicament with this piece. Benedict's piano concertos and their opus numbers are something of a muddle: the 2nd concerto op. 89, as you note, begins with much earlier-written material than its "completion" date of 1867, as does his 3rd concerto. The Concertino he played in New York with Timm and the New York Philharmonic would have to be a tremendous reworking of any previous material to give enough "meat" for two pianos, and he would have had to write it in Britain to bring with him - the arrangements for his NYP appearance were undoubtedly made months before, because he had enough to do without him supposing he'd have an opportunity "crop up" to play the piece. He did bring other works to conduct in the US which are seemingly now lost, notably his Festival Overture op. 42, but who knows? That last may have also been published in Germany but hasn't turned up yet. His Crusaders overture was either published or circulated in handwritten parts as I've found notices of it in several German concert programmes into the 1860s, so the Festival Overture may have gone the same path. (I don't even know what occasion made it a "Festival" overture, though op. 42 puts its composition date around the time of the 1st piano concerto, which is op. 45). I keep finding holes and filling them in with unexpected finds in odd places. I just found out there's a small cache of his letters at Cornell University, about 2 hours from where I live, so I hope to go and see them next week.

[eschiss1]

Interesting, didn't know that- I wonder if one of his family went to or lived near the University, just as one of Raff's brothers briefly lived fairly near here (here being Ithaca...) at one point too?

[pcc]

Benedict's letters and other materials are scattered all over archives with only minimal rhyme and reason, which makes research tricky but not impossible - for instance, Berlin holds a large collection of his letters and writings, including the manuscript of his Weber biography. Another American archive holding a fair number of letters is the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C., which may seem odd except that Benedict wrote incidental music for Henry Irving's production of Romeo and Juliet in 1882 (some of the letters are addressed to Bram Stoker, Irving's manager) and he also composed an overture to The Tempest (op. 77) which was performed at the Exeter Hall on 11 March 1856 and published by Enoch & Sons in full score in 1875. He had contacts all over Europe and the United States, so it makes sense that people who came into possession of his materials (and valued them enough to keep them) gave them to institutions they lived near. The contents of Cornell's particular packet of letters in French were all sent to the same addressee, whose address is not listed in the Olin Library's catalogue. In my paper I quote from an 1844 letter to Ludwig Rellstab requesting help in securing German performances of his recently produced opera The Brides of Venice, which is not in an archive but in a German autograph dealer's list which quotes the passage. As most autograph collectors want the object but not necessarily its contents, I've written the dealer several times offering to pay for a transcript of the whole letter, which he has evidently already made, but have had no response. So it seems I'd have to pay 500 euros to get the letter to make a translation myself, which I cannot really justify or do, but at least I have the reference to the dealer's catalogue.

My biggest discovery was finding out that his journals from 1840 to 1885 (lacking 1882) are at the RCM. It's really surprising that he was such an assiduous diarist - when did he have the time? - though his journals may mostly consist of business matters. I'm making a start at examining them when I come to the UK next month.

He must have had enormous commitment and energy to do as much as he did from when he arrived in Britain in 1836 plus attending to what seems to have been a loving family of a wife and five (!) children. Losing his wife and young son in 1851-52 must have been a shattering blow, and it's a sign of the strength of his character that he emerged in 1854 from a long period of near-total seclusion and threw himself back into his work with the same energy as before, leading up to composing The Lily of Killarney in 1862, his symphony in 1873, organizing and conducting the Norwich Festivals and his monster annual concerts as before, and conducting the Liverpool Philharmonic from 1867 to 1880. His remarriage in 1879 caused some comment, as he was 75 and his bride, Mary Comber Fortey (who had been a student of his for some years and was evidently an excellent pianist), was 23. They even had a son in 1881.

Benedict often appeared in caricatures as he was such an omnipresent musical figure, but occasionally some of them seem, to me at least, a little nasty. This 1873 image by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) seems to refer to Benedict's Jewish background in its pose and the hair "tails" (which he never wore), although he had converted to Catholicism (his first wife was a French Catholic) in 1833. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I'd be glad of others' opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Benedict#/media/File:Sir_Julius_Benedict_Vanity_Fair_27_September_1873.jpg