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Thu, 12 Aug 1999 21:24:31 -0400 |
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Richard Pennycuick responds to:
>Walter Meyer [who] wrote [in part]:
>
>>Just maybe people are talking of different Benjamins?? There's Arthur
>>Benjamin (b. 1898; d. 1960) by whom I know only his "Jamaican Rhumba"
>>which I actually find quite nice, and whom I *thought* at first everybody
>>was talking about until I found out that there was also a George Benjamin
>>(b. 1960), by whom I don't recall having heard anything.
>
>Arthur Benjamin's 1944-5 first symphony (Marco Polo 8.223764, Queensland
>SO/Christopher Lyndon-Gee, coupled with his Ballade for Strings) is an
>interestingly moody work running about 40' and which you should respond to
>if you like the symphonies of such people as Alwyn and Bax. I also have on
>an Everest LP a concerto and a concertino for piano and orchestra which are
>pleasant enough music but I'm not sure if they've made it to CD.
They surely did, on Omega/Everest EVC 9029 [1996]. coupled with nothing
and therefore disastrously short-timed at 41:18. Nice music, but compared
to some other works of Arthur B., lacking in -hm- thematic distinction.
The Benjamin which most takes my fancy is the set in which the Jamaican
Rhumba known to Walter is No. 4. The original set is for two pianos, but
knowing Benjamin for a demon orchestrator, I can't imagine there isn't an
orchestral version:
Six Caribbean Pieces:
Jamaicalypso
From San Domingo
Caribbean Dance
Jamaican Rhumba
Mattie Rag
Cookie
They were recorded by Martin Jones and Richard McMahon in 1985, and issued
on CD on DCC AVM AVZ-3029, which is probably long out of print. It's worth
seeking out.
There was also a set of 18th C. dances orchestrated by Benjamin and titled
"Cotillion." I knew it from an ABC transcription LP disc of a radio band
led by one Joseph [?] Post. Wish I had it by me, but it's long beyond my
ken.
John Wiser
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